Swiss Life increased profit by 7 percent in 2018 and plans for a substantial increase of its dividend. The company also attracted a more than healthy amount of new money at its asset management arm.
Switzerland’s biggest life insurer had net income of 1.08 billion Swiss francs ($1.08 billion) in 2018, up from 1.01 billion a year earlier, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Premium growth reached 2 percent and the volume amounted to 19.2 billion francs. Fees added 6 percent to 1.62 billion francs.
Swiss Life had direct investment income of 4.4 billion francs (up from 4.3 billion), which corresponded to a direct investment yield of 2.9 percent (up from 2.8 percent). The net investment yield was 3 percent at the end of 2018.
Asset Management With Healthy Increase
The asset management business of Swiss Life also performed strongly. The company has 233 billion francs in assets under management.
In the third-party business, the division generated net new assets of 8.4 billion francs (compared with 7.1 billion a year earlier). Third-party assets under management rose to 71.2 billion francs through the end of the year. Total income by Swiss Life Asset Managers increased 6 percent to 734 million francs.
Targets Met
The company said it successfully concluded the three-year strategy called «Swiss Life 2018» and achieved all the targets it had set itself, in most cases the targets were exceeded.
Swiss Life proposes to pay a dividend of 16.50 francs per share, which corresponds to an increase of 3 francs year-on-year. The company will pay 2.50 francs of the dividend in the form of a withholding tax-free distribution from the capital contribution reserves.
