Swiss Life increases its fee result by 14% and profit from operations by 13% in the first half of 2021

"We achieved a strong result in the first half of 2021," says Patrick Frost, CEO of the SwissLife Group. "We succeeded in raising the fee result in all divisions and increasing the cash remittance to the holding company and the profit from operations. We were thus able to significantly improve in these strategic areas of relevance for us, not only compared to the respectable half-year 2020, but also compared to half-year 2019, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. The good first half-year results once again demonstrate the relevance and competitiveness of our services and offerings, whether in the insurance, advisory or asset management business sectors. We are making very good progress toward achieving our ambitious targets under the "SwissLife 2021" Group-wide programme and are therefore in an excellent position to successfully develop SwissLife further."

Higher fee result and increase in profit from operations and net profit
The Swiss Life Group posted an adjusted profit from operations of CHF 889 million in the first half-year 2021. That corresponds to a 13% rise compared with the previous year. Net profit rose by 15% to CHF 618 million. The fee result increased compared with the previous year by 14% to CHF309 million. Both the insurance units and SwissLife Asset Managers increased their contributions to the fee result.

Swiss Life Switzerland posted a segment result of CHF 458 million in the first half-year (previous year: CHF 415 million). The fee result contributed CHF 17 million (previous year: CHF 14 million). In France, Swiss Life posted a segment result of EUR 132 million (previous year: EUR 125 million). The fee result increased by 27% to EUR 49 million. SwissLife Germany increased its segment result to EUR130 million (previous year: EUR92 million). The fee result grew by 26% to EUR55 million. Swiss Life International achieved a segment result of EUR42million, 17% higher than the previous year. The fee result contributed EUR 32 million to that (+23%). Swiss Life Asset Managers posted a segment result of CHF 140 million in the first half-year (previous year: CHF 135 million). Third-party asset management contributed CHF43million to that (+16%).

SwissLife achieved direct investment income of CHF 1.97 billion in the first six months of the year (previous year: CHF2.03 billion). The non-annualised direct investment yield was 1.1% (previous year: 1.2%). The net investment yield on a non-annualised basis was 1.3% (previous year: 1.1%).

Growth in fee income in all divisions
Swiss Life continued to expand its fee business: fee income rose by 15% in local currency to CHF1081 million. All divisions contributed to this growth. Overall, the owned IFAs increased their contribution by 19%. Contributions from own and third-party products and services rose by 17% and SwissLife Asset Managers raised its contribution by 9%.

Premiums amounted to CHF 10.9 billion in the first half of 2021 (previous year: CHF 11.6 billion). The 7% decline in local currency is mainly due to the development in Switzerland and the disciplined underwriting policy.

In its home market of Switzerland, Swiss Life achieved premiums of CHF 5.9 billion (previous year: CHF 7.3 billion). The decline (-20%) is mainly due to lower single premiums in the full insurance business. Semi-autonomous business, which is largely not reported as premiums, was by contrast expanded further: assets under management increased to CHF5.4 billion as at the end of June (year-end 2020: CHF4.8 billion). Fee income increased by 12% to CHF 157 million. In France, Swiss Life posted premium growth of 27% to EUR 3.5 billion. In the life business (+38%), the share of unit-linked solutions stood at the prior-year level at 58% and was again well above the market (38%). In fee business, income rose by 21% to EUR 183 million. Swiss Life in Germany achieved premiums of EUR 661 million in the first six months of the year, an increase of 5%. Fee income was up 19% to EUR 295 million due to growth in owned IFAs. SwissLife International posted a decline in premiums to EUR451 million (previous year: EUR694 million). Fee income came to EUR151 million, 15% higher than the previous year.

Swiss Life Asset Managersincreased its total income by 6% to CHF 445 million. Of this, CHF262 million come from TPAM business, an increase of 8% over the previous year. Net new assets in TPAM business amounted to CHF4.6 billion in the first half of 2021. TPAM assets under management came to CHF 98.9 billion as at the end of June 2021 (year-end 2020: CHF 91.6 billion).

Very good progress with "Swiss Life 2021"
The value of new business came to CHF252 million in the first half of 2021 (previous year: CHF204 million). Thanks to the disciplined underwriting policy, the new business margin rose to 3.1% (previous year: 2.1%) and was thus significantly above the ambition level of 1.5%. The average technical interest rate decreased by 2 basis points to 1.03% compared to the start of the year, due to an improved business mix. The cash remittance to the holding company increased by 7% to CHF798million. In the first half of 2021, SwissLife generated an adjusted return on equity of 11.3% (previous year: 10.2%; shareholders' equity excluding unrealised gains/losses) and is thus above the 8 to 10% ambition range of the "SwissLife 2021" Group-wide programme. Swiss Life estimates its SST ratio at around 205% as of 30 June 2021, based on the regulatory solvency model. The solvency ratio is thus above the strategic target of 140 to 190%.

Investor Day on 25 November 2021
As communicated previously, Swiss Life will present its new strategic targets at the upcoming Investor Day on 25 November 2021.

Telephone conference for analysts and investors
Patrick Frost, Group CEO, and Matthias Aellig, Group CFO, will hold a telephone conference in English for financial analysts and investors today at 9 a.m. (CET).

Dial-in numbers:

Europe: +41 (0) 58 310 50 00

UK: +44 (0) 207 107 06 13

US: +1 (1) 631 570 56 13

An audio webcast of the conference will be made available on the www.swisslife.com website.

Virtual media presentation for media representatives
Patrick Frost, Group CEO, and Matthias Aellig, Group CFO, will hold a video conference in German for media representatives today at 11 a.m. (CET). Both the dial-in numbers and the participation link for the video conference can be found on the website www.swisslife.com.

Further information
All documentation relating to the financial statements and to the half-year results can be found on our website at www.swisslife.com.

Information

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Further information
All our media releases can be found at swisslife.com/mediareleases

Swiss Life
The Swiss Life Group is one of Europe's leading comprehensive life and pensions and financial solutions providers. In its core markets of Switzerland, France and Germany, SwissLife offers individuals and corporations comprehensive and individual advice plus a broad range of own and partner products through its sales force and distribution partners such as brokers and banks.

SwissLifeSelect, Tecis, Horbach, Proventus, Fincentrum and ChasedeVere advisors choose suitable products for customers from the market according to the Best Select approach. SwissLifeAssetManagers offers institutional and private investors access to investment and asset management solutions. SwissLife provides multinational corporations with employee benefits solutions and high net worth individuals with structured life and pensions products.

Swiss Life Holding Ltd, registered in Zurich, was founded in 1857 as Schweizerische Rentenanstalt. The shares of Swiss Life Holding Ltd are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SLHN). The Swiss Life Group also includes various subsidiaries. The Group employs a workforce of around 10 000 and has at its disposal a distribution network of some 16 900 advisors.

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Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking information
This publication contains specific forward-looking statements, e.g. statements including terms like “believe”, “assume”, “expect” or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements, by their nature, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors. These may result in a substantial divergence between the actual results, developments and expectations of Swiss Life and those explicitly or implicitly described in these forward-looking statements. Given these uncertainties, the reader is reminded that these statements are merely projections and should not be overvalued. Neither Swiss Life nor its Members of the Board of Directors, executive managers, managers, employees or external advisors nor any other person associated with Swiss Life or with any other relationship to the company makes any express or implied representation or warranty as to the correctness or completeness of the information contained in this publication. Swiss Life and the abovementioned persons shall not be liable under any circumstances for any direct or indirect loss resulting from the use of this information. Furthermore, Swiss Life undertakes no obligation to publicly update or change any of these forward-looking statements, or to adjust them to reflect new information, future events, developments or similar.