Swiss Life 2007 Net Rises 44% on Unit Sales, Premiums

Swiss Life 2007 Net Rises 44% on Unit Sales, Premiums

March 27 (Bloomberg) -- Swiss Life Holding, Switzerland's largest life insurer, said 2007 profit rose 44 percent to a record on the sale of its Belgian and Dutch units and higher premium income.

Net income increased to 1.35 billion Swiss francs ($1.36 billion) from 933 million francs a year earlier, the Zurich-based company said today in an e-mailed statement. That beat the 1.21 billion-franc median estimate of nine analysts surveyed. Gross written premiums rose 9.5 percent to 24.2 billion francs.

Chief Executive Officer Rolf Doerig, who will be succeeded by Bruno Pfister in May, has focused on the life and pensions business in Europe after an expansion into asset management foundered. Swiss Life in November sold Banca del Gottardo private bank to Assicurazioni Generali SpA for 1.88 billion francs and its Dutch and Belgian insurance units to SNS Reaal NV for as much as 1.54 billion euros ($2.43 billion).

``This is definitely a good result, above consensus and paves the way for what Swiss Life expects to achieve in its targets,'' said Bank Vontobel analyst Viktor Dammann in Zurich, who has a ``hold'' recommendation on the stock.

The insurer said that starting next year it plans to distribute 40 percent to 60 percent of net profit annually to shareholders and reiterated a plan to increase earnings per share by at least 12 percent a year to 2012.

Swiss Life, founded in 1857, is using the proceeds from the sales to buy back up to 2.5 billion francs of shares and fund its majority ownership of AWD Holding AG. As of March 13, Swiss Life held 86 percent of the German financial-services broker.

Swiss Life has fallen 12 percent this year, giving it a market value of 8.7 billion francs. The 28-member Bloomberg European Insurance Index dropped 13 percent in the period.

BLOOMBERG