• The SwissLife Group generated premium income of CHF7.4billion in the first three months of 2015, which corresponds to growth of 11% in local currency (+7% in Swiss francs).
  • Fee and commission income climbed 15% in local currency to CHF316million over the same period.
  • SwissLife Asset Managers achieved net new asset inflows of CHF1.5billion in external customer business during the first quarter of the year.
  • Thanks to robust direct investment income, Swiss Life generated a non-annualised net investment result in the first quarter of 0.9% (Q12014: 1.0%).

"Swiss Life got off to a good start in the first quarter of 2015," says PatrickFrost, GroupCEO. "The fact that we had already achieved most of the goals under our 'SwissLife 2015' programme in 2014 is helping us navigate an environment where interest rates have fallen to even lower levels. At the same time we are acting swiftly to adapt our product offering to the changing market environment on an ongoing basis. The positive development in fee and commission income shows that we are making further progress with the diversification of profit sources."

Business development in the first quarter of 2015

In the first three months of 2015, SwissLife generated premium income of CHF7.4billion. This corresponds to an increase of 11% in local currency compared to the first quarter of the previous year (CHF6.9billion). In its home market of Switzerland, SwissLife grew premiums by 8% to CHF5.3billion (Q12014: CHF4.9billion). This was driven by both continued strong demand for full-insurance solutions from the Swiss SME sector and growth in individual life business. In France, premiums amounted to CHF1.1billion, which represents a rise of 8% in local currency. With unit-linked business representing more than 60% of new business, premium quality in life business was further enhanced. SwissLife in Germany posted premium income of CHF355million in the first three months of 2015 – a decline of 4% in local currency. The International market unit generated premium volume of CHF606million (Q12014: CHF404million). SwissLife AssetManagers posted net new assets of CHF1.5billion in external customer business in the first three months of 2015.

Overall SwissLife generated fee and commission income of CHF316million in the first quarter of 2015. This 15% rise in local currency (+6% in Swiss francs) is driven by growth within SwissLife AssetManagers, in the owned IFA channels and in unit-linked business in France.

Resilient investment income and strong group solvency ratio

Thanks to the high quality of its investment portfolio, SwissLife maintained direct investment income in the first quarter of 2015 on a par with the previous year at CHF1.1billion (Q12014: CHF1.1billion). This gave a non-annualised direct investment yield of 0.7% as at 31March2015 (Q12014: 0.8%); the non-annualised net investment result in the same period came to 0.9% (Q12014: 1.0%). Group solvency as at 31March2015 (based on Solvency I) rose by 15 percentage points from its end-2014 level to 284%. Excluding unrealised gains and losses on bonds, the Group's solvency ratio stood at 193% (FY2014: 196%).

Thomas Buess, Group CFO, will hold a telephone conference in English for financial analysts and investors at 10 a.m.(CET) today. Please dial in ten minutes before the conference begins.

Dial‑innumberforEurope

+41(0)583105000

Dial‑innumberfortheUK

+44(0)2030595862

Dial‑innumberfortheUSA

+1(1)6315705613

Gross written premiums, policy fees and deposits received as at 31 March 2015

CHF m

Q1 2015

Q1 2014

Change
(CHF)

Change
(in local currency)

IFRS basis, unaudited

       

Switzerland

5347

4930

+8%

+8%

France

1091

1154

-5%

+8%

Germany

355

422

-16%

-4%

International

606

404

+50%

+69%

Total (1)

7386

6896

+7%

+11%

(1) Total contains intersegment eliminations and reinsurance of CHF-13 million in Q1 2015,CHF -14 million in Q1 2014.

Information

Media Relations

Phone +41 43 284 77 77

media.relations@swisslife.ch

Investor Relations

Phone +41 43 284 52 76

investor.relations@swisslife.ch

www.swisslife.com

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 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 two subsidiaries Livit and Corpus Sireo are also part of the Swiss Life Group. The Group employs a workforce of around 7500 and approximately 4500 certified financial advisors.

 

Swiss Life in 3 minutes (video)

 

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 SwissLife 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. SwissLife 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.