Swiss Life Holdings AG (SLHN.VX: Quote,SZLMY.PK) reported Friday a decline in its first half profit, reflecting lower net earned premiums and litigation provisions related to its AWD unit. However, the provider of life insurance and pension solutions, said its well diversified investment portfolio resulted in a 2.7 percent improvement in investment return.
Net earned premiums declined to 7.33 billion Swiss francs from 7.61 billion francs a year ago.
In AWD unit, revenues declined 13 percent, reflecting lower sales performance, particularly in Germany. EBITDA, including one-offs dropped 40 percent, due to legal provisions of 9.3 million euros. In Insurance International, new business margin declined 0.4 percentage points to 0.7 percent.
Bruno Pfister, CEO stated, "Swiss Life has been successful despite the historically low interest rates and persistently volatile markets. This proves that we further improved the resilience of our business model in recent years."
Net investment return was up 2.7 percent, compared to a 1.9 percent in the same period a year ago. In Investment Management, Swiss Life generated a net investment result on insurance portfolio of 3.24 billion francs, higher than 2.08 billion francs in the preceding year.
In the first half, the company's net profit declined to 361 million francs from 403 million francs in the previous year. On a per share basis, earnings were 11.26 francs, down from 12.55 francs last year.
Adjusted for one-offs and currency effects, net profit was 369 million francs. Profit from operations was 528 million francs, up 17 percent from last year, due to further operational advances and a strong investment result, the company said.
In Zurich, the shares are currently trading at 105.4 francs, up 3.54 percent, on a volume of 139 thousand shares.
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by RTT Staff Writer
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