Swiss Life Stock

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Swiss Life Presentation of the Half Year Results 2026 Conference Call and Live Webcast. I am Myra, the Chorus Call operator.

[Operator Instructions] And the conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] The conference must not been recorded for publication or broadcast.

At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Matthias Aellig, Group CEO of Swiss Life. Please go ahead, sir.

Dear analysts and investors, good morning. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to our half year 2026 conference call. I will give you a brief overview before handing over to our CFO, Marco Gerussi. I'm pleased with the operational performance and with what we have achieved in the first half of the year. We grew the fee income and the fee result across all businesses, meaning asset managers, IFAs and the unit-linked business. We grew the insurance business, its operating result and the contractual service margin. Our strong results show the great commitment of our employees and advisers. I would like to thank all of them for their strong engagement and our customers for the continued trust and loyalty.

Let me provide some more color on our performance in the first half of 2026. The fee result amounted to CHF 430 million, 11% above the prior year period. The growth is broad-based and includes a gain from the transfer of the international network to a partner earlier this year. Profit from operations increased by 8% in local currency to CHF 967 million. Net profit was also up 8% to CHF 649 million despite high tax rate. Return on equity was at 20.2%. Cash remittance to the holding company was CHF 1.2 billion, up 5% year-on-year. As previously announced, the acquisition of the TELIS Group was successfully completed on first of July 2026. This means that TELIS will be reflected in the figures starting in the second half of the year.

Let me move on to Swiss Life 2027. We are in the middle of our 3-year strategic program and are highly committed to executed with discipline. We are well on track to deliver all our strategic actions and achieve all our financial ambitions. In May 2026, we completed our CHF 750 million share buyback. And we are pleased to announce today a new buyback of CHF 250 million which runs from October 2026 to March 27. Looking beyond our 2027 program. We aim to further expand our business profitably. Exploit market opportunities and increase operational efficiency, among others, by leveraging the advancing digitalization, this also includes a reduction of around 600 positions by the end of 2028, largely through natural attrition.

Roughly half of the positions are at Swiss Life in Switzerland and half at Swiss Life Asset Managers mainly abroad. This measure is expected to generate annual cost savings of around CHF 150 million in 2029 and beyond.

With that, I hand over to Marco, who will provide more details on the half financial results in Swiss Life 2027 progress reporting.

Thank you, Matthias, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Let me continue today's presentation by taking a closer look at our 2026 half year results. We begin with the selected P&L figures shown on Slide 6. Insurance revenue was stable at CHF 4.5 billion higher CSM release of CHF 617 million and high revenue contributions from Switzerland and Germany were largely offset by FX translation effects.

Insurance service expenses were stable at CHF 3.8 billion. Higher expenses in line with business growth were offset by favorable FX effects. The net investment result increased to CHF 290 million. As a reminder, this is an IFRS 17 accounting figure, which includes various items. In view of our investment performance, we continue to focus on the net investment income, which we will discuss later.

Profit from operations increased by 8% in local currency to CHF 967 million, driven by both a higher fee result and a higher operating result from insurance business. Borrowing costs decreased to CHF 75 million, primarily due to some double carrier expenses in the prior year period. Income tax expense increased to CHF 243 million, mainly due to the step-up in the corporate tax rate for large corporates in France and a higher taxable profit base. Net profit increased to CHF 649 million up 9% in local currency despite the higher tax rate. As shown on the slide, profit from operations and net profit include a gain from the transfer of the network business in International to a partner earlier this year, amounting to CHF 29 million and CHF 23 million, respectively.

Turning now to further selected figures. Gross written premiums, fees and deposits received increased by 3% in local currency to CHF 12.3 billion, supported by strong growth in Switzerland. Fee and commission income increased by 7% in local currency to CHF 1.3 billion. Growth was achieved across all businesses, meaning asset managers, owned IFAs and own and third-party products and services. Net investment income of the insurance portfolio for own risk strongly increased from CHF 1.6 billion to CHF 2.4 billion, driven by equities, infrastructure and FX hedging effects. Operating expenses, excluding variable expenses slightly increased to CHF 1 billion, including investments in growing fee businesses and expenses related to efficiency measures.

I will now move on to our segment reporting, starting with Switzerland. Premiums increased by 7% to CHF 6.8 billion, whereas the life insurance market was flat. Premiums in group life increased by 7%, while the market was down by 2%. Single premiums grew by 16%, driven by higher premiums from existing clients and new business. Periodic premiums decreased by 1%. Assets under management in our semiautonomous foundations increased to CHF 8.6 billion from CHF 8.4 billion at year-end 2025 million. Premiums in individual life increased by 7%. The market increased by 5%, our growth is the result of higher unit-linked single premiums up 20% year-on-year, while periodic premiums were down 1%.

Fee and commission income was up by 11% to CHF 196 million, mainly due to higher income from unit-linked business and from investment solutions for private clients. The segment result increased by 2% to CHF 469 million due to a higher operating result from Insurance business. A higher CSM release in the Individual Life business is partly offset by lower income from assets not backing insurance liabilities. The fee result was flat at CHF 27 million. Higher income was offset by investments in continued growth initiatives such as investment solutions for private clients, which we mentioned in previous disclosures. Cash remittance was slightly lower at CHF 602 million, in line with the statutory profit in 2025.

Turning now to France. Please note that all figures quoted are in euros for our French, German and international segments. France premiums were flat at EUR 4 billion, while the total market was up by 9%. In our Life business, premiums grew by 2%, driven by the pension and production business. The overall market grew by 10%. The unit-linked share in our life premiums increased to 73% compared to the market average of 39%, reflecting our focus on unit-linked solutions. Overall, we generated Life net inflows of EUR 1.2 billion. Total market net inflows were EUR 36.5 billion. In health and protection, our focus on profitability before growth resulted in a 5% decline in premiums. The market was up by 6%. P&C premiums were flat.

Fee and commission income rose significantly by 14% to EUR 336 million due to higher unit-linked fee income based on higher average unit-linked reserves. The contribution from structured products also increased. The segment result grew by 9% to EUR 228 million. Fee result was up by 10% to EUR 117 million due to the unit-linked business. As mentioned in previous disclosures, the segment result contribution from structured products continues to be largely reflected in our operating results in Insurance business, were it emerges over time. The operating result from Insurance business was up by 8% to EUR 111 million, supported by the contribution from the health and protection business. Cash remittance decreased by 12% to EUR 160 million due to the step-up in the corporate tax rate in France impacting the 2025 statutory profit.

Moving on to Germany. Premiums were up by 3% to EUR 777 million driven by higher periodic and single premiums. The market was down by 4% due to lower single premiums. Fee and commission income increased by 10% to EUR 465 million, driven by our own IFAs. The number of financial advisers increased to around 6,300, 5% higher compared to the prior year period. Our insurance business also contributed positively. The segment result was up by 4% to EUR 125 million, fee result increased by 6% to EUR 85 million, driven by owned IFAs despite an increase of the commission ratio and continued investments in the back office digitalization.

Operating results from insurance business was stable. Cash remittance increased to EUR 166 million and includes a special dividend of EUR 60 million, resulting from a legal structure optimization. As previously announced, the closing of the acquisition of the TELIS Group was successfully completed on first of July 2026, and TELIS is therefore not reflected in the 26 half year figures.

Turning now to the International segment. Premiums decreased by 8% to EUR 1.3 billion. Premiums from corporate clients increased by 3%, more than offset by lower premiums from the Private Clients business. Fee and commission income was stable at EUR 190 million. Higher income from owned IFAs, mainly in the U.K. was offset by the network business transferred to Generali earlier the year. The segment result rose by 43% to EUR 92 million. This is largely due to a gain of EUR 32 million in the fee result from the management transfer. Please note that the gain is a noncash item related cash proceeds are expected over the coming years, starting from 2027. The operating result in insurance business increased by 11% to EUR 20 million driven by corporate clients. Cash remittance was up by 16% to EUR 70 million due to the 2025 statutory profit.

Let's move on now to our asset managers, which reports in Swiss francs. Asset managers total income increased by 5% to CHF 519 million, driven by both PAM and TPAM. In PAM, total income grew by 5%, mainly reflecting higher nonrecurring income from real estate transactions. In the TPAM business, total income increased by 4% to CHF 339 million. Recurring income across all asset classes grew strongly by 7%. Nonrecurring commission income also increased. This is partly offset by lower other net income from real estate project developments.

The total nonrecurring income had essentially 0 noncash items compared to a share of 3 noncash components in the prior year. The share of total nonrecurring income for TPAM, meaning commission income and net income from real estate project development was 11% compared to 14% in the prior year period. As mentioned at our full year results disclosure for each year 2026 and 2027, we expect to achieve a share of around 25%, which is in line with our Swiss Life 2027 targets.

The segment result increased by 4% to CHF 152 million. The contribution from PAM increased by 6% to CHF 101 million driven by the higher income. The TPAM contribution increased by 2% to CHF 51 million. Higher commission income was partly offset by lower income from real estate project development and expenses related to efficiency measures. The TPAM cost-income ratio stands at 72% compared to 82% in the prior year period, driven by a higher commission income.

Cash remittance decreased by 3% to CHF 232 million, in line with the lower 2025 statutory profit. New assets in our TPAM business amounted to CHF 7.2 billion in the first half of 2026 compared to CHF 13.2 billion in the prior year period. We saw continued strong inflows with real assets contributing CHF 1.4 billion. The rest of inflows are mainly driven by equity and money markets. Assets under management in our TPAM business increased from CHF 146 billion at year-end 2025 CHF 158 billion, driven by positive net inflows and performance.

Let's move back to the group. Operating expenses increased by 2% in local currency to CHF 1 billion, reflecting growth, continued investments in business growth and expenses related to efficiency measures. As I outlined at our Investor Day 2024, we aim to keep life absolute costs stable by 2027 at CHF 750 million. For the half year 2026, Life absolute costs amounted to CHF 355 million and were slightly below the prior year level. With that, we are well on track with our 2027 target.

Coming to the investment income. Direct investment income was at CHF 2 billion. The reduction was due to lower income from infrastructure and FX rate movements. And real estate income was down primarily due to a lower asset base. non-annualized direct investment yield was at 1.4% compared to 1.5% in the prior year period. The net investment income strongly increased to CHF 2.4 billion due to net capital gains driven by equities, infrastructure and FX hedging effects. The net investment yield was up 1.7% compared to 1.2% in the prior year period.

Let us continue with our insurance investment portfolio on Slide 15. Assets under management remained stable at CHF 143 billion compared to year-end 2025. Real estate fair value changes were positive at around 0.4%, driven by our Swiss real estate portfolio, partly offset by lower fair values outside of Switzerland. For the full year, we expect overall positive fair value changes to double compared to the current level. Real estate continues to be an attractive and important asset class for backing our long-dated liabilities in the context of our disciplined asset and liability management. We hold real estate because of the regular rental income it provides and not because of appreciation. Vacancy rates were lower at 2.8% compared to 3.1% at year-end 2025.

Moving on to Insurance reserves on Slide 16. Insurance reserves increased 1% in local currency to CHF 183 billion compared to year-end 2025.

On a statutory basis, in total, we released about CHF 0.15 billion of statutory reserves in the Swiss group life and the individual Life businesses as we did in the previous years.

Moving on to the CSM development. As outlined at our Investor Day 2024, our ambition is to increase the CSM through operating growth. In the first half of 2026, this growth amounted to CHF 0.2 billion. expected business contribution and new business together amounted to CHF 0.7 billion. We generated another CHF 0.1 billion in experience adjustments, mainly from work on our portfolio. CSM release increased to CHF 0.1 billion. Pretax CSM release ratio was at 7.6% and therefore, slightly lower than in the prior year period. In total, the CSM after release representing future shareholder profit contribution grew from CHF 15.3 billion at year-end 2025 to CHF 15.6 billion at half year 2026.

Shareholders equity decreased to CHF 6.3 billion, largely due to the dividend payment and to complete the share buyback, partly offset by the profit for the first half of the year. Our total outstanding financing instruments amounted to CHF 6.2 billion. The Average ratio stood at 25% for the half year 2026 at the midpoint of our revenue level of 20% to 30%. The SST ratio is estimated to be around 215% at the end of June 2026.

And with that, well above the ambition range of 140% to 190%. Compared with the SST ratio at 213% at the end of 2025, the ratio increased, reflecting the positive performance of equity and real estate markets partly offset by the widening of the interest rate differential between Swiss franc and the U.S. dollar.

That brings me to our Swiss Life 2027 program and the progress reporting. As mentioned by Matthias, we are well on track to achieve all our 2027 financial targets. Let's go through the details, and I will start with the fee income on Slide 22. I Fee and commission income increased by 7% in local currency to CHF 1.3 billion. owned and third-party products and services were up 9% and both our owned IFAs as well as asset managers grew by 8%. Profit from operations was up by 8% in local currency to CHF 967 million as a result of growth in both the fee result and operating results insurance business.

Fee result includes the gain from the transfer network business in our International division. The operating results from insurance business increased by 4% in local currency to CHF 600 million. Main drivers were the higher CSM release as well as higher additional contributions, primarily driven by the French Health and Protection business. The return on equity was at 20.2% on an annualized basis compared to 17.6% in the prior year period.

Turning to capital and cash. Cash remittance to the holding company increased by 5% to CHF 1.2 billion, which includes the mentioned special dividend in Germany. At the end of June 2026, liquidity at holding amounted to around CHF 1.1 billion. Today, liquidity at holding stands at around CHF 0.65 billion, reflecting the EUR 500 million senior bond issued for the TELIS purchase price payment and business growth. Our share buyback, which we started in December 2024 was completed in May 2026. We repurchased shares were CHF 750 million. And we are pleased to announce today a new share buyback program of CHF 250 million.

We will start repurchasing shares on first of October 2026 and expect to complete the share buyback by the end of March 2027. The buyback will be executed by a partner bank through a second trading line over the course of 6 months. Shares repurchased under this program will be proposed for cancellation to the upcoming AGM.

After the financing, more than half of the share buyback will be financed from cash at holding, the remaining part is financed from repatriations.

Let me summarize. In the first half of 2026, we achieved strong growth in premiums as well as in fee and commission income. Fee result operating profits from insurance and our net profit all increased significantly. Return on equity is at a high level. Cash remittance is on track, and our SST ratio is well above our ambition level. Looking at our Swiss Life 2027 program, all our financial targets are well on track. And today, we announced a new share buyback. We are convinced that with our determination, our diligence and our discipline we will achieve all our group financial targets.

And with that, I'm handing back to you, Matthias.

Thank you, Marco. We will now open a Q&A session. Who would like to start?

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Michael Huttner from Berenberg.

I spoke to some investors and I was thinking, okay, solid plus results. I was always hoping for more. And 2 questions. On TELIS one on the 600 and together one on the fee and commission results? On TELIS, could you remind us what the contribution will be in terms of revenues, in terms of operating profit? And how do we factor in that in the earnings because you're also paying more interest on that?

The second question is on the 600 FTE or position reduction. Can you give us a little bit of a background on this? To me, it feels like you grew impatient, and I'm laughing -- this is not funny. I mean these are real people with the progress of the nonrecurring outside of Switzerland and you kind of said, well. If that's all you can do -- a few of you can do it, but I don't know. It feels -- but also the more precise question is have you already booked the restructuring costs.

And then final, on the fee result, CHF 430 million, you're doing lots of math and it's complete -- probably completely wrong. I get to a run rate of CHF 1.2 billion that you're going to say about this. This is nice. So what I've done is I've taken the 11% off then double that and then added 25%. Obviously, I'm very optimistic. But I just wondered whether you can give us a feel for the math compared to your over CHF 1 billion target.

Thank you, Michael. I hand over to Marco for the TELIS question, and I will take the other pools.

On the TELIS acquisition overall, more from a top line view. That's what we said in the last call, we will add 1,800 advisers to our operating unit. I think that's one part of the answer. And from a result point of view. So the operating result, we said that it will be somewhere between CHF 25 million and CHF 30 million for an entire year. So if we now account for that in the second half of the year, obviously, it's not the full number is more half of it.

And maybe adding on that, that's clearly the positive, as we mentioned in the Q1, we said that the purchase of TELIS was financed largely by the CHF 500 million bond that we issued and there are obviously some financing costs to be on taken against that the result contribution that Marco just mentioned, and the coupon was somewhere around 3.5% or something like that to help you a bit on that.

Now on the 600 positions to give some background. And I think I mentioned it in my speech in the beginning. I mean, you've heard it from me, you have heard it from Marco. We are well underway with the current program, Swiss Life 2027. But we look today already beyond 2027, and we want to continue our success beyond 2027.

And that's why we want to continue to pursue growth opportunities, profitable growth opportunities. We want to increase our efficiency, and that's why we have now undertaken this cut most of that, and I think that's also important of that reduction will be achieved by natural attrition.

And out of those 600 we have until today already reduced 100 by using this natural attrition by selective refilling of positions, and there will be another 100 positions that will be reduced until the end of 2026 and those that are affected by that, we will support on an individual basis to help them in new positions. So I think that's the background of it in terms of restructuring costs, I think Marco mentioned that in the half year, we have incurred some efficiency-related expenses. I would say that's a high single-digit amount that we have incurred so far for the full year, we expect probably a bit more than doubling this amount.

And clearly, there will be more to come relating to those efficiency gains in '27 and 2028. maybe to already give some indication here. If we look now at '27 and '28 in aggregate, say, in aggregate, the ramp-up of the cost savings will essentially be, as I said, in aggregate, be offset by expenses that are related to achieving those efficiencies.

So expect this amount that I've also mentioned in the CHF 150 million to be incurred as cost savings in 2029 and beyond on a recurring basis. And to also expand on that, if we think about those on 50 maybe a bit less than half of that will be incurred in Switzerland, subject to the policyholder sharing and a bit more than half will be in the Asset Management division.

Maybe that's kind of a lengthy answer of the background of the 600 and the financial impact on that. And the question on the fee result that you mentioned, I'm not sure whether I fully understood the math you have done, but I may offer kind of an alternative approach to think about it. Marco said that we have had an 11% share in the half year of nonrecurring income for the full year 2026.

So we confirm the guidance of a nonrecurring income of around 25%. So that means for the full year, Asset Managers segment result will obviously more than double, and that's something we have observed in prior years.

TELIS, we talked about it, we also contribute in the second half of the year. And we also talked about international. This will obviously not double. We have had this one-off that is in there. And as you know, in the other divisions, we have some seasonality. So we would not expect full doubling, for example, in France or Germany. This may help you going through the numbers for 2026.

The next question comes from the line of Farooq Hanif from JPMorgan.

I just want to clarify for us my questions. Did you say your cash at holding now post June was CHF 0.65 billion or CHF 1.65 billion. I just wanted to check if I heard correctly.

And then my question. So can you tell us a little bit more about the timing and phasing of buyback? Because normally, in the past, you've given us a longer period with a bigger buyback program and you spread it over a longer period of time. This is like obviously a 6-month period. that you're targeting for a CHF 250 million buyback. What's your expectation that you will come at full year with a new proposal and then at half year? Is that going to be the new model for talking about the buyback?

My second question is the really, really large jump in French non-life profit. I mean I think it's a record profit in 1H '26 compared to its history. So I just wanted to understand what's going on there and whether there are any one-offs or whether we're just seeing really good profit measures that you've put into place, which has obviously hit your premium?

And then my last question is, if we look at the nonrecurring element of TPAM commission in 2H, how much of this is likely to be cash?

Thank you, Farooq. I think Marco goes with the question. I will go for the buyback, and Marco will have then the other 2 questions?

So the first one, cash at holding level, I said CHF 1.1 billion was at half year and as of today, CHF 0.65 billion after consideration of the EUR 500 million bond we issued CHF 0.65 billion in cash at holding.

Then on the French non-life business, I think here is important to consider where we come from. So this is -- I would even call it now a turnaround situation we were in. So having really, let's say, weak results some years ago and putting a plan in place to get a recovery out of that. So there's a lot of different measures on profitability to work on that.

And over time, we're getting now the better technical profitability, which now shows up in the result. I mean that a steep and a significant increase, which will be positive answer for the way forward, but not to be expected just to continue like that. But this is basically the outcome of working on the profitability, technical profitability coming from a rather low level towards some years ago.

We also won for the...

Again, on the forecast, the nonrecurring income now in half year. So this was full cash, so to say, comparing to 3/4 noncash in the full year 2025 and for the let's say, the remaining part of the year, we expect that to be, let's say, more balanced, more balance between cash and noncash components should give you some of guidance.

Can I ask 1 question on the French non-life, is there a premium associated with this? I mean is there a combined ratio or some metric that we can think about in terms of the margin that you're making there?

Yes. I mean, we have 2 businesses there, right? So the P&C business there, we got a bit of, let's say, increase of the ratio, it's slightly above 100 because of some claims. So there's more volatility in that part of business. And the P&C business, by the way, is a smaller part of our Non-life business in France. And in the health and protection area, we increased the ratio by around 2 percentage points from 94% to 92%, somewhat around those numbers.

And if I may come to your second question on the buyback. I mean, you may recall at Investors Day, we put our, let's say, thinking around the framework on paper we applied at framework is well established and has already been used in the past. We continue to apply that. So there's no change in policy or thinking about the buybacks.

So it means that we have, in addition to the payout ratio goal and ambition to increase this perspective and buyback that we consider and stress that we consider additional capital management actions on top of those 2 things mentioned, if the SST is above the ambition range and if we have a comfortable cash situation at holding, there is no automatism you know that. And we communicate such things generally at half year, full year, for example, at Investors Day. So this is the framework that has been in place that is apply that continues to be applied to no change in policy, and that would will guide us forward.

And just as a reminder, for example, in the last program, we had one large buyback that we announced with the Investors Day, and there was an additional, I think, CHF 0.3 billion that ran from '23 -- from October 2023 to March 2024. So you see also from looking back that this is nothing new that we have done here. Hope this gives you some answers to the questions.

The next question comes from the line of Iain Pearce from BNP Paribas.

First 1 was just a couple on cash. So CHF 0.65 billion post the TELIS acquisition. You guided obviously, the CHF 250 million share buyback to be completed by the end of March and then half of that coming from remittances. So is the sort of guidance that you expect to be at CHF 500 million sort of post the completion of the buyback for cash at holding and are you happy running at that level? I think that's sort of at the bottom end of your target range.

And then the second part, I think you said half of the CHF 250 million share buyback to be funded from remittances in H2. That looks like quite a high remittance number for the second half versus what we've had in previous years. Is there anything one-off in the H2 remittance number that you wanted to flag.

And my second one was just on the operating expenses. So just looking at the operating expense growth over the last few years, it's only been about CHF 100 million over the last 3 years. So just trying to sort of think about the operating expenses ex variable with this CHF 150 million of cost savings, are you expecting that number to be sort of flat or even slightly down by 2029? Is that sort of what you're targeting with the CHF 150 million cost saving guide.

Marco, I think will take the 3 questions. And I may jump in them.

I think the first one on the cash at holding, we've always said and also elaborated on that at Investor Day, we have comfort level or comfort range at holding level being CHF 0.5 billion to CHF 0.7 billion. So this gives you a bit of guidance, but this is not a regulatory requirement. So something like this is an internal, let's say, an internal range. We take for some guidance. And as ever possible, we try to put our money, our cash at work.

So that's basically the role of the holding company. So we are here to give money to our opcos to work. I think that's what we can say in terms of cash remittance in the second half of the year in earlier years, the number in the second half was always around on average between CHF 60 million and CHF 70 million, and there is nothing in view of any one-offs as the names say, to be flagged on that?

And the third question on the operating expenses and the growth, I think, here basically, that's part of our strategy. We aim on improving scalability and efficiency, operating efficiency. That's one part of our goal. And we have a clear goal on scaling the fee business. That's part of our strategy, and we have a clear goal and the related to that in the speech on the life absolute cost. So in the life insurance business keeping cost flat. So that's basically how we think about cost and being efficient and scaling.

And now having this CHF 150 million, Matthias alluded to it and with less than half coming from Switzerland, going through the legal quote and the policyholder sharing and the remaining part, a bit more of it being within asset management, starting from '29 is an effect we will see in the operating expense. But from a result point of view, because of the sharing with the policyholder only 1 part of it mainly will show up in the results. And I think that's how to think about it.

If I may add on the remittances question. I think that's an important, I mean, as Marcos said, more than half is funded from cash at holding, and it's less than half that relates to repatriation. I think it's important also to understand cash remittance and repatriations are not the same. So when we talk about repatriations, this can be maturing internal loans that are not used anymore for, let's say, the internal purposes in the opcos. And this is the kind of things that we talk about when referring to repatriation. And as I said, there will be additional cash remittances. But that said, this is not the same thing as the repatriation.

The next question comes from the line of Ahmed Nasib from UBS.

So first question on the network business. What's the cash component? And when are you expecting to -- for it to come through? I think you mentioned '27 is similar to the IFRS result. Secondly, on the French Health tax, I think you said you're going to manage that. Is that done? Is that within the first half results already, we shouldn't expect anything more from that component?

And then finally, Vita foundations from Zurich Insurance is going independent. Is there any sort of your foundation also running independently? And what's the earnings contribution from that business?

I think Marco can start with the first question. I will take the second and the third.

The network business and the transfer to a partner, this is IFRS accounting. So that again, we are already account -- we have to account for it in our books and the cash let's assume it's the similar amount for that gain coming in over the next few years starting in '27 to '27, '28, '29, -- let's put it like that.

And maybe on the French Health business, I'm not sure whether we fully captured your questions. But let me mention what we have been doing over the past years. We had a year, I think it was '23 or '24 where we really had significant issues. I believe the entire market had similar challenges back then. And we have been repricing, we have been doing many, many measures to restore profitability.

And you may have seen that in the first half, we had a -- in the health and protection business, a lower top line. So that means we are really prioritizing as in the past, profit over growth. And this is what we have been doing for the past quarters and years almost that what I think we can say Marco also mentioned a bit and then now switch to the P&C business.

Here, we had in France, as you can imagine, some large claims. So the combined ratio is above 100%. And there, we have the same thought. We want to make that business profitable, but that's a different starting position than the health and protection business that, as you have heard, has improved the profitability from a combined ratio from the mid-90s to even lower levels which I think is a pleasing level.

Now on the Vita Foundation and what you could read in the newspaper, obviously, we do not comment on competitors and what their things are. But let me maybe make a couple of comments on our situation. Our approach to the Swiss BVG business is that we have a really wide range of offerings. Clearly, we have the full insurance, which is the largest part of our offering, where we have the full set of risks being covered Swiss Life, so meaning the savings, the risk and the cost part.

And there, as you can imagine, if somebody wants to come to the Swiss Life full insurance, he or she wants us to provide these services.

We have also the semiautonomous offer. I think Marco mentioned also the growth we achieved there, and we have additional offerings such as new risk coverage for semiautonomous foundations, I would say, let's say, our, let's say, Swiss Life offering. So that gives you a bit our position. And we are, I would say, in good shape with having this wide range of offerings to the client. So the client can choose what fits best for their risk appetite or the risk appetite of the business, if I may say so.

Next question comes from the line of Kaya Batikan from Kepler Cheuvreux.

I have one question, related to TPAM inflows. So we have seen some normalization in TPAM net new assets from the exceptionally high level last year. Could you give us some color on how flows have developed since the end of June and your expectations for the remainder of the year and going forward?

So on the NNA and the inflows in the TPAM is the CHF 7.2 billion we reported on. I think here in pleasing the real asset share, so real estate and infrastructure amounted to CHF 1.4 billion. And then the other asset classes just managed the equities and also in the money markets in view of the inflows, I mean, we don't guide on details for the second half of the year. So far, we are happy with the inflows. We have a strong pipeline.

We also intend to further increase the amount of the real assets in our inflows, and we can confirm, and I think that's the most important point in view of the both assets under management, the CHF 170 billion in the target of Swiss Life 2027, but we are well underway to reach the target. And also in the area of the recurring income in TPAM based on the higher underlying the higher asset base, I think the growth of 7% of the recurring income in TPAM also gives you a bit of a view on how the development is. So we are constructive and positive in that area.

Perfect. Can I have one more question if you relate to the direct investment income, it seems like direct investment income has declined. How much of this decline reflects timing or volatility? And what would be the reasonable run rate for the second half?

Yes. I mean the decrease in the investment there is different, let's say, reasons for that one being a bit lower asset base in real estate. Impacting the investment income. We had in the infrastructure area and exit in the prior year period, which was very positive in the prior year. Numbers then there is FX effect, mainly the U.S. dollar on the coupons coming from U.S. dollar investments.

So there's several reasons why the number is lower. There has been in relation relatively seen an improvement compared to the first quarter, and we are positive for the second half to get that closer back to the numbers we have seen in earlier or in prior year reporting. So it has some timing and some volatility in it and also some effect showing up in the net investment income, which is very positive, up by CHF 800 million.

Next question is a follow-up question from Michael Huttner from Berenberg.

I had 3. One maybe a little bit on the tax rate. We seem to going up due to France, and I just wondered whether you can give us a feel for what numbers we should use going forward. On the real estate, you mentioned again that the -- you've got less of it. And I just wondered, it seems to be in contrast with your remarks saying that real estate is a loved assets class, and I just wonder if you can give us a bit more color on this. And then general question on the German pension reform. With your kind of 8,000 IFAs, I guess now, how much benefit do you expect from that going forward?

Marco will give you some indications on the tax rate, and I'll talk a bit about real estate and the German reform then.

Yes. Tax rate is up. You're right, and we mentioned that in the presentation, more than 27%, a main driver, the higher profit base, but then the step-up of the tax rate in France and maybe 2 things to mention here for the second half of the year or for the full year 2026, we expect the number to be somewhere between 25% and the current rate. I think that's something we can say. And looking a bit more into the future, current discussions and also signals and information we get from all the discussions in France. It might be expected that the step-up will roll over also into the next year so that the French tax rate will remain at the level we see this year also in the next year.

And coming to the real estate question, yes, absolutely. Real estate continues to be an attractive asset class. At the same time, you know and we mentioned that before, we are actively managing our portfolio, we may not be best owner for each and every single object. That we hold, some objects may be owned by TPAM clients due to size considerations and the like.

As you know, we are going or preferring higher or larger objects that are easier and more efficient to maintain. So we are actually on both sides. And now I think in the first half of the year, we had a net outflow of real estate, we had years where we had net inflows. So the outflow that you have seen now means no statement about real estate as an asset class, in terms of the pension reform, I'm sure you know what's going on. I will not go into all the things that the German government is now putting forward I think what I could say is if you look at everything that the German government says, there will be the start of this new pension reform first of January '27.

So that's where, if I may say so, the market is reshuffled and that's where we clearly with our now 8,000 IFAs, which I have this entrepreneurial mindset, we'll certainly have some opportunities to seize. On the other hand, the second half of 2026 will be a bit more quiet because in the area of pensions people, clients, advisers are now waiting for what's going on in 2027.

Having said that, as you know, the pensions business, if you wish, in our German IFAs is only one of the product lines among many others that we advise our clients on. I think what's also important, I have now mentioned specifically IFAs in our insurance business, I would say, given the product we offer, this is a non-event anyway because we're not into Riester.

The next question is a follow-up question from Farooq Hanif from JPMorgan.

Sorry, just a bit of a clarification on Iain's question and another question of my own. So you mentioned that half of the CHF 250 million buyback will be funded by cash remittances or cash of some sort. So if we take the CHF 60 million to CHF 70 million, that means roughly a similar amount again will come from repatriation of cash, so internal loans. Can you tell us about the capacity to keep doing this? So presumably, you do have a larger balance of internal loans that you could use. So if you could talk about that, just so that -- I mean the reason I'm asking is obviously people are worrying that your cash fall to a low level as a result of this. We just need to know whether you have capacity to keep supporting from a cash point of view, that buyback going forward?

And then my second question is going back to the other result in the insurance operating result. As well as a very good French non-life result, I think it was quite a good return on surplus assets as well, which I think in 1H was a similar level to 2H '25. So I just want to understand, is this actually quite a good run rate for modeling going forward in that line? Or is there some kind of one-off positive in there.

Let me try to give you the answer on the buyback. So we said there is CHF 250 million buyback. And more than half of that CHF 250 million is financed by cash we have at the holding today. So with that what we have today at the holding, CHF 0.65 billion that Marco mentioned. And the rest of it is financed by repatriations, as we said, for example, maturing loans that are upstreamed back to the holding, for example, because -- not exact because they are not used anymore at the opco for operating purposes. So that's, I think, the financing on the -- of the CHF 250 million.

Now regarding the repatriation, I think we keep talking about them every now and then. I don't know the exact amount, but as you may recall, the dominant part of those internal loans are kind of permanent financing if you wish.

Past acquisitions that were financed by pushing down

the purchase price into -- the operating companies and these are loans that are here to stay. We earn money on them from the coupon and obviously, the acquired businesses or the businesses that we have been growing, deliver in addition to that coupon on the loan, obviously, their profits as a cash remittance.

And I think the last point on cash and buyback was the cash level below falling below CHF 0.5 billion. And there, as I said, we have the CHF 0.5 billion to CHF 0.7 billion as a cash comfort range and if we want to feel comfortable we stay obviously within that range. And if I may go to the first comment I've made. We have CHF 0.65 billion. If I say more than half is financed from cash at holding, you can infer that we want to stay in that comfort range.

Second and last point or last point that also keep in mind that we have a revolving credit facility of CHF 0.5 billion, which at this point in time is not drawn at all.

I hope this gave some clarification, and I would hand over to Marco for the other results.

In the operating result, insurance business, this additional or further contributions Basically, it's 2 elements in it. One is the non-life business in France, which we already discussed with the health and protection business and the P&C business and the other part is assets not backing insurance liabilities. And as the name already says, the additional contribution, this is something from the accounting standard by construction doesn't go through the CSM.

So there is by design a bit more of volatility in the results. So there is always various movements. What we have seen, and what I can say is in the first half of last year, 2025, the number was rather at the higher end because of some positive developments in the assets, not backing insurance liabilities. Now the number is a bit lower. And I would assume plus/minus some movements as also FX and things like that. Is this a level you could expect also going forward.

Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Matthias Aellig for any closing remarks.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your questions and for joining us today. Before we close the call, let me recap. We continued on our growth path across all divisions, and I'm pleased with our operational performance both insurance and fee businesses. We are well on track with the implementation of our Swiss Life 2027 program. So thank you again, and we wish you a nice day. Goodbye.

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Chorus Call, and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Swiss Life Q1 2026 Trading Update Conference Call and Live Webcast. I am Sandra, the Chorus Call operator.

[Operator Instructions]

The conference is being recorded.

[Operator Instructions]

The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast.

At this time, it is my pleasure to hand over to Matthias Aellig, Group CEO of Swiss Life. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for dialing in and for your interest in Swiss Life. Today, we are reporting on selected top line figures for the first quarter of 2026. I will start with an overview, and our Group CFO, Marco Gerussi, will give you more details.

We had a good start to the year with pleasing top line growth in the first quarter of 2026, both the fee and the insurance businesses contributed to this growth. Swiss Life increased its fee and commission income by 6% in local currency to CHF 686 million, with all businesses contributing. Gross written premiums, fees and deposits received increased by 5% in local currency to CHF 8.2 billion. Swiss Life Asset Managers reported strong net new assets of CHF 4.2 billion in third-party asset management compared to CHF 9.3 billion in the exceptionally strong prior year period. The SST ratio was estimated to be around 210% at the end of March 2026. I'm particularly satisfied with the growth in our fee income across all divisions and businesses, meaning asset managers, owned IFAs and own and third-party products and services. We are well on track with our Swiss Life 2027 program.

In addition to our first quarter disclosure, we are announcing today, the acquisition of TELIS Group at Swiss Life Germany. With around 1,800 advisers and the fee income of more than EUR 200 million, TELIS is one of the leading German IFAs. With the acquisition, Swiss Life Germany will further strengthen its position as a leading financial advisory company. Combined, we will have, in Germany, around 8,000 certified advisers and a total fee income in excess of EUR 1 billion. This was a unique opportunity that we have seized from the founding family, who will stay with us in an advisory role. I'm pleased that with this transaction, we accelerate our profitable growth in the German IFA market.

And I would like to welcome TELIS within the Swiss Life Group, look forward to their contribution to Swiss Life Germany. With that, I hand over to Marco.

Thank you, Matthias, and good morning. I'm pleased to walk you through our trading update, looking at our good first quarter 2026. As usual, all figures are unaudited figures for the group are reported in Swiss francs and for each business division in local currency. Growth rates are stated in local currency.

Let me start with our business division, Switzerland. Premiums increased by a strong 10% to CHF 5 billion. Life insurance market remained flat. Premiums in group life grew by 10% to CHF 4.5 billion, while the market decreased slightly. Single premiums increased by 25%, driven by higher premiums from existing clients and new business. Periodic premiums declined by 3%. Assets under management in our semiautonomous foundations were at CHF 8.1 billion compared to CHF 8.4 billion at year-end 2025. The decline is due to negative market performance and the net transfer into our full insurance business.

Premiums in individual life grew by 7%. The overall market was up by 5%. Single premiums grew by 20%, driven by the unit-linked business. Periodic premiums declined by 1%. Fee and commission income was up by 2% to CHF 93 million, mainly due to higher income from unit-linked and investment solutions for private clients.

Turning to our French, German and International business divisions, which all report in euros. Let me start with France. Premiums were down by 2% to EUR 2 billion. The total market was up by 11%. In our life business, premiums were down by 1%, driven by lower premiums in the savings and pension business. The overall market grew by 14%. The unit-linked share in our life premiums increased to 73% compared with the market average of 41%, reflecting our unchanged focus on unit-linked solutions. We generated life net inflows of EUR 0.6 billion. Open market net inflows were at EUR 19.3 billion.

In health and protection, we kept our focus on profitability before growth. This resulted in a 7% decline in premiums. Market growth was at 7%. EMC premiums grew by 4%. Fee and commission income rose by 8% to EUR 166 million due to higher unit-linked fee income based on higher average unit-linked reserves and net inflows. The income contribution from structured products remained stable at a pleasing level.

I continue with Germany. Premiums were up by 3% to EUR 425 million, driven by modern and visibility products as well as a higher single premium. The market decreased by 6%, mainly in single premiums. Fee and commission income rose by 5% to EUR 238 million, supported by both a higher productivity and a higher number of financial advisers at owned IFAs.

Compared to the first quarter in 2025, the number of financial advisers grew by 3% to 6,154. These numbers do not reflect the acquisition of TELIS Group, which we announced today. With this transaction will further strengthen our position as a leading financial adviser in Germany and further grow our advisory base and the fee results. Closing of the transaction is expected in the third quarter 2026.

Turning now to International. Premiums decreased by 3% to EUR 1.1 billion. Higher premiums with corporate clients were more than offset by lower premiums with private clients. Fee and commission income increased by 2% to EUR 94 million, driven by higher income from owned IFAs. In February 2026, we announced the partnership between Swiss Life Network and Generali, concerning a small part of our Employee Benefits business. The fee income reported today excludes this business.

Let's move on to Asset Managers, which reports in Swiss francs. For your information, we have expanded our disclosure for Q1 and Q3, in line with our full and half year reporting. We now disclose total income, which consists of the commission income and the other net income, including the real estate project development.

Asset Managers total income rose by 12% to CHF 261 million. In our PAM business, total income increased by 4% to CHF 90 million. Increase is mainly driven by higher real estate transaction income. In our TPAM business, total income grew by 16% to CHF 171 million. Increase in recurring income is due to higher assets, while the higher nonrecurring income is largely real estate transaction income.

The share of total nonrecurring income for TPAM, meaning commission income and other net income from real estate project development, was at 13% compared to 6% in the prior year. As mentioned at our full year results disclosure for each 2026 and 2027, we expect to achieve a share of around 25%, which is in line with our Swiss Life 2027 targets. Net new assets in our TPAM business amounted to CHF 4.2 billion compared to CHF 9.3 billion in the first quarter 2025, which was exceptionally strong.

We saw continued strong inflows in our index business, and inflows in real assets amounted to CHF 0.8 billion. Both these inflows were slightly offset by outflows, in particular from money market funds. Assets under management in our TPAM business increased to CHF 148 billion compared to CHF 146 billion at year-end 2025. Net inflows were partly offset by negative performance.

Turning to our investment results. Direct investment income decreased by CHF 142 million to CHF 0.9 million due to lower income from equities and infrastructure, which included the sale of infrastructure assets in the prior year. Additionally, we had various movements in the foreign exchange rates, particularly related to the U.S. dollar. The non-annualized direct investment yield was at 0.7% compared to 0.8% in the prior year period. Looking at the net investment income, we had a stable development compared to the first quarter in 2025.

Real estate continues to be an attractive and important asset class for backing our long-dated liabilities. Vacancy rates decreased to 2.9% compared to 3.1% at year-end 2025. Real estate fair value changes, which is non-annualized, were positive at around 0.3%. For the full year 2026, we expect a similar trend that in 2025, further positive real estate fair value changes driven by our Swiss real estate portfolio.

Moving to solvency, cash and payout. At the end of the first quarter of 2026, the SST ratio was estimated to be around 210%, and therefore, marginally below year-end 2025. This is due to market movements, which more than offset the positive impact from a hybrid issuance in January 2026. As of today, we estimate our asset ratio to be at the same level as at year-end 2025, well above the ambition range of 140% to 190%.

At the end of the first quarter, liquidity at holding amounted to around CHF 0.6 billion. Our ongoing share buyback of CHF 750 million is well on track and will run until the end of May 2026. As of 15th of May 2026, we repurchased shares worth 726 million.

Let me sum up. We are pleased with the performance of Swiss Life in the first quarter of 2026. We grew both our fee and our insurance business. Moreover, net new assets in our third-party asset management business increased. And our asset ratio is at a strong level. With this, we are well on track to achieve all of our group financial targets of our Swiss Life 2027 program.

And with this, I hand back to you, Matthias.

Thank you, Marco. We will now open the Q&A session. Who would like to start?

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Michael Huttner from Berenberg.

Fantastic. And well done for really good results. I had 2 questions. One is on TELIS and one is on the nonrecurring. Can you give us a feel for what TELIS will do? I know you say raise your fees, but on a kind of run rate basis, how much would it add to profit? And then -- the -- on TELIS, I don't know how to ask it, but I'm really trying to find out how much it costs, but maybe you can kind of give us a feel for what it would do to solvency when the deal closes?

And then on the nonrecurring, so up from 6% to 13%. Is this actually now cash deals? Or is it still kind of accrual based? It's just kind of -- and also, I know you said 25% is still on track. But if you had 6 -- if you're -- if you're far ahead of what you did last year and last year was 25% full year, is there a little bit of upside to come?

Thank you, Michael. Let me start on the TELIS acquisition. As you said, we gave the indication of -- for the year 2025 in terms of fee income. We said it's more than 200 million in terms of fee result contribution, so on the pretax and prefinancing cost basis, for the year 2025, you can, as an indication, take something between EUR 25 million and EUR 30 million. Now keep in mind that Marco just said, we expect closing somewhere in the third quarter. So if that materializes, as we assume, first year where we have a full run rate here will be 2027.

Now in terms of the costs, I mean, we have agreed with the founding family, the seller, not to disclose -- you can assume it had no relevant impact whatsoever. In the end, it's a fee business. It's not an insurance business, obviously.

So I think that's in respect of TELIS, and let me go on with the question on the nonrecurring income, what we report for Q1, the 13% nonrecurring income, so meaning commission income and the net income from project development that is fully cash.

In terms of the full year, construction this nonrecurring income exhibits really variations quarter-by-quarter, and I wouldn't read anything in the fact that we have now 13% and to 6% in the prior year. We clearly said we expect for the full year 2026 is around 25% that Marco said.

The next question comes from Thomas Bateman from Mediobanca.

Could you just come back to TELIS? Could you just talk us through a little bit more about your strategy in Germany, but also how TELIS would fit into your platform? I don't know I'm thinking here more along cost savings potentially from TELIS moving their drivers onto your platform. Is that something that we should think about in the long term?

And the second question is just on investment income. Clearly, there was a little bit of a drop this year. Can you give us a bit of a feel for the outlook for investment income for the full year?

I will start with the questions, TELIS, and Marco can give you then some color on the direct investment income.

Now on TELIS, I mean, our strategy in Germany, I think that was very clear from the Investors Day, we want to further grow our IFA business in the German market. We were starting in the program with a strong position. We had, as a result, also quite significant missions in terms of fee result. We mentioned that we are working in the current program, also a bit more on the back-end systems. And that as a result, let's say, the fee result target of more than [ CHF 150 ] is a bit back-end loaded within the program.

And this is fully true what we said. We now have -- just had the opportunity to accelerate that strategy. And as we always say, all the targets we have are organic. But when there is this opportunity to go for something that fits strategically, financially and culturally, we do that as a bolt-on transaction. That's what you have seen here. It's really an acceleration of our strategy in the German market. With that, we further strengthen our leading position in Germany.

Now on the second question that you had in terms of potential synergies, what is important is that we clearly will retain the brands of TELIS. We will, as we have done it with the other brands that we have in Swiss Life in Germany, we'll retain the brand of TELIS. But clearly, over time, there will be synergies in the back office. There is a platform we -- I'm sure Swiss Life in Germany can also learn from TELIS. And here, we are clearly positive that TELIS will contribute positively to the fee result, starting on day 1 in Germany.

With that, I hand over to Marco for the investment income.

Thank you relating the investment income. So as I said during the presentation, the decrease we have seen is to some part refers to a sale in the infrastructure area. The parts of the proceeds were distributed as a direct investment income in the prior year period. This is somewhat now missing in the numbers in the first quarter 2026. And there is another effect, I would say that's more technically related staff referring or relating more to timing. That's something we will see later on. And there is a smaller part relating to U.S. dollar assets movements on the direct investment income.

The yield on the direct investment income, I would say, this is something we expect to be at a similar level than in the prior year 2025. And as I said, also additionally in the presentation on the net investment income is we had a stable development compared to the prior year first corporate period in 2025. And the net investment income finally is one of the -- important for our results.

Can I just -- just one follow-up on the liquidity holding number that you gave, the 0.6 billion. Is that inclusive of the acquisition of TELIS?

I mean, as we said, we are closing the deal in the third quarter, that's [indiscernible].

The next question comes from David Barma from Bank of America.

Just to confirm on TELIS, Matthias, thanks for the details, but you are saying you don't expect any material impact on either holding cash or remittances from Germany, if that's correct?

And then secondly, on the solvency ratio, could you please give some details on the movements in the quarter, and particularly on the market effects? And linked to that, the interest rate differential widen in Q1 and continue to widen in Q2. So if you could talk a little bit about the potential impact on the SST and the CSM, please.

And then lastly, on France, the fee income growth continues to be really good. If you could give some color on new business growth there?

I hand over to Marco for the SST and the French question. I will end with the TELIS question.

So on the solvency, I mean, at the end of the first quarter, the marginal decrease to around 210 comparing to the 213 at year-end '25, this is mainly due to market movements in equities and credit spreads. That's something that recovered than year-to-date. And as of today, that's why we are saying we are at the similar level than at the year-end. The differential was just the marginal one of the very, very let's say, there are many smaller items moving a bit up and then the down, but that is not, let's say, an unmanageable impact on the numbers. And overall, same.

Speaking about the economical part of the CSM, I must say that the same holds true also for the CSM development.

And the question on the French business on the fee income, quite pleasing growth that continues there. You're absolutely right. This is mainly due to the unit-linked income, and that's based on 2 facts, it's net inflows, so new business we write there, but also some positive market effects on the underlying assets for the reserves, the unit-linked reserves. I think I said that also during the presentation, one part of it is -- continues to be the structured products. We sell and offer in the French business together with our bank. It is very pleasing and stable, but a very pleasing level and also contributing to the overall higher numbers.

Now maybe coming to a question on TELIS, David. I mean, what are the impacts of that acquisition? I talked about the acceleration of the strategy in Germany and what we clearly expect from this acquisition that we will see high fee result. I've just mentioned the 25 million to 30 million that TELIS has achieved in 2025. I mean again, that's a pretax and prefinancing cost number, but that's what we clearly expect as a number going forward. I mean this is an asset, as I said, is fully functional. I mean we expect such contributions starting day 1 asset, but 2026, not on a full year basis. And with the fee results, they are corresponding remittances.

Now your question in terms of cash at holding was probably more geared towards the financing of that acquisition. You may have seen that we have issued a senior bond, EUR 500 million senior bond for general purposes in April, and a large part of that will be used towards the financing of that acquisition. So per se, and I think that the point, there's no impact on the cash at holding due to the acquisition per se. Over time, I said there will be this higher remittances.

Next question comes from Nasib Ahmed from UBS.

Three for me. Firstly, on TELIS. Can you just kind of help me understand the margin on that business relative to your own German IFA business? It seems like it's a little bit lower than what you're targeting in 2027?

Second question on the holding company cash development. You've issued some senior debt already. So what's the holding company cash position today? And is that going to be used for the buyback at 1H?

And then finally, on political changes in Switzerland. So you've got the population control both Lex Koller, rental control in Zurich. Have you done some sensitivities on what that would mean for your business if they -- if those things go against you on the real estate market?

I think I hand over to Marco for the holdco cash because at the end, it's a Q1 call and not the TELIS call, but that will take then TELIS and the political things after that.

So the cash at holding as of today is 1 billion, I think, is important to consider senior bond we issued in April, the EUR 500 million that Matthias just mentioned, which is for business purpose. So that's money for TELIS, so a large part, as Matthias said, but also then the remainder put at work in our operating company. So overall, no impact on the cash level at holding. And I think second point to make, which is also very important, we don't use on the transactions or issuance for share buyback financing. So that's completely to be separated.

And maybe on the political developments, you mentioned a couple of them. And maybe let's start with this initiative on federation level in June around the sustainability, as it's called, on immigration.

Look, this is, first and foremost, a political decision. That's why we do not comment too heavily. I think there, what is important for us that irrespective of the outcome of that [indiscernible] vote, that policymakers in Switzerland continue to make sure Switzerland is and remains an attractive place for doing business in the interest, let's say, of the prosperity of the country. And to be frank, in Switzerland has a very good track record on that. And in that respect, we are not particularly concerned about that vote.

Now on the Lex Koller, there is this recent proposal by the federal council. This is at the very early stage of the process. I mean this is a proposal where now everybody can give input. And clearly, we think this is a very bad idea going forward. There are very good arguments against it. It doesn't solve any problem. It's not feasible. I will spare you the details of it.

What is key I think is every now and then -- and if I look back the last 10 years, probably every other year, every 3 years, there are proposals that either are coming from the Federal Council, but mostly from the parliament they are discussed. We take them seriously, don't get me wrong, but there are very good arguments against them. And then after a while, they just disappear asset because they do not solve any underlying problem.

In terms of the initiative in the state of Zurich, also something we take obviously very seriously, similar to what I just said on a federal level, the initiative doesn't solve any problem. I mean, it just -- would lead to a situation where existing real estate kind of becomes even more valuable because I mean you can -- but there will be less investment activity. But again, same thing. We have, I believe, very good arguments against it, and we are pretty confident that this will not materialize.

And last question was on TELIS. I think if you were asking about the margins, as said, it's a very similar business. It's a very similar business mix. The numbers that I've given to you made the case that it's broadly in line with again, we have taken it for strategic reasons to make this acquisition and not for any, let's say, margin differentials or anything like that. Hope this gives some clarity on it.

Yes. That's very helpful. I was just wondering on the political stuff, that's helpful in terms of where you're thinking is. But can you give some exposures on your business or some sort of kind of sensitivity on this thing? And I think there is policyholder sharing on the rental income, et cetera. But anything that you can give around what the impact could be for Swiss Life?

Look, I mean, this is pure speculation at this point in time. I mean, again, what I think is important that you can take with you is the statement I've made about the federal initiative mid-June. In Switzerland, there is a clear sense that we have the interest of maintaining Switzerland as an attractive business hub. And anyway, there will be pragmatic implementations of it anyway. So to that, let's say, level, I wouldn't, let's say, expect for us as a company, very, very material impact.

The next question comes from Iain Pearce from BNP Paribas.

The first one is just on the Switzerland top line growth, obviously, very strong in Q1, particularly on the Group Life business and the -- sorry, so particularly on the Group Life business. Could you just talk about -- a little bit about what's the drivers of that really strong growth? And particularly, are you seeing any benefits of sort of disruption you might be seeing at peers?

Second one was just on France. So some of the disconnect between the top line and the fee income. So it sounds like unit linked is growing quite strongly. Could you just talk a little bit about what's going on in the other businesses in France, particularly what you're seeing on the top line in Q1?

And if I could just get a third one in as well on the investment result. So the sort of growth versus net investment result and saying the net investment result is sort of stable year-on-year, but the gross investment result will improve. Does that mean you expect the net investment result to improve year-on-year? Is that what we should be reading to that? Or are you sort of guiding flat on the net investment result year-on-year?

Iain, I leave the question Switzerland and the investment income to Marco, and I will try to answer the French aspect.

Yes. So on Switzerland, the group life business top line you referred to, I mean there is, as you said, an unnoticed quite a very pleasing growth in those premiums. Driver behind it is single premiums, and this has 2 sources, one is existing clients we have that, let's say, put additional money of their businesses into those products, and the second driver behind it is new business. Because into our book, I would not make a direct link to any other developments in the market. So that's -- I would say that's -- in that, you know it from prior years in the normal course of our business that growth, I would say.

And on the investments income, I think I elaborated on that in detail on the direct investment income on the reasons for that. This is some of the underlying assets being sold, that, that fix topic and also some timing related things that on a yield basis, we expect the year-end number '26 on the level of '25. Net investment income, I mean, I haven't said anything into the future about that we don't guide in detail. One thing I said is the real estate fair value changes. We had 0.3% nonannualized positive real estate fair value gains, and also expect that what we said during the presentation, a similar trend like in '25 also in '26, meaning further increasing fair values, mainly driven from the Swiss real estate portfolio. That gives you a bit of a flavor what we expect during the remainder of the year. I hope that helps.

And then let me come to the French top line development, maybe across the business line. I think what is important, we said it on earlier calls, Marco mentioned it today, not only in France, but also in France, I mean, we follow profitability before growth. I mean that's the underlying principle we have been following for years and the years and the years.

Now what does it mean concretely? In the life business, we were able, with our focus on the capital-light unit-linked business to grow that business. We have been growing the unit-linked business, the share of unit-linked business. That's what Marco has shown the share in terms of unit linked in terms of premiums has grown significantly. We are way above the market anyway. But we have deemphasize this part which comes with the guarantees, that's so-called [indiscernible]. And there, the market has been behaving differently. Again, we put profitability first. And I think that explains a bit the development in the life business. So really focus on the capitalized unit linked solutions.

In health and protection, similar picture. We are protecting the profitability. We have been talking about the turnaround that we achieved in '24, maintained in '25. We keep focusing on profitability in that business as well. That's why we incurred, as a result also of significant price increases, a reduction of the top line by 7%. That's a very -- clearly below the market. We stop contracts. It's really profit first.

P&C, which is not a very big business, but there, we increased by 4%. Hope that shed some light on, let's say, the line of business view in France.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from [ Jonathan Brodin ] from Finance & [indiscernible].

Just probably last question on TELIS. Is it like this was -- was this deal necessary to reach your fee result target for 1 billion in 2027? Or is it just additional growth you're expecting from it?

And also, you've talked -- you said that last time that your project development fees are back-end loading. So still like 2027 kind of coming in. What's -- can you give us an update on that? Do you still think this is back-end loaded? Or do you see some fees coming forward coming earlier than expected?

And also maybe what's your take on interest rate movements in the euro area? I mean you're seeing a lot of inflationary pressures. Do you expect any impact from that?

And then maybe lastly, looking into the future, what's your next strategic initiatives? I mean you've got in wealth manager in Switzerland. What will this wealth manager play? Will this wealth manager play in more important bigger role in your group business going forward? And -- or do you plan to broaden your private markets offering in your asset management?

Also, you've got the non-life insurer in France, do you expect this? Or can you maybe say if you want to expand this offering into other markets? Yes.

Okay. Thanks. That was quite a wealth of question. I will take the last one, Marco, will say a couple of words on the real estate project development, and I will finish off with TELIS again.

Now let me start with your first question. I mean, -- we are absolutely focused on executing the current program, Swiss Life 2027. I mean we have lots of initiatives going on here. In terms of the example, you have mentioned Swiss Life wealth managers in Switzerland. We clearly have said in December 2024. I mean Roman Stein, our CEO Switzerland, has said he wants to establish that business as a third core business. He is working with his team on that very diligently. And he, like -- as I said, the entire Executive Board, is working on implementing the strategy of the current program. I think we mentioned every time that we are well on track with the implementation of that strategy and that we are also well on the way to achieve the financial goals of program.

So when there is an outlook to be made towards the next strategic period, I have to refer you to the Investors Day. The next one asset, we're currently focusing on the program at end.

Marco will say a couple of words on the project development.

So on the project development, I think it's important that overall, I mean, we may use the term back-end loaded overall for the 1 billion or the above 1 billion target 2027 overall for the group in the fee result. And also in asset management, where the project development business is located, obviously, there is higher numbers.

Why is it higher numbers during the different years? We have the total income growing. I think that's something we aim for, but the share of the nonrecurring part, including the project development business, that's something we expect to be around '25, this year, so in 2026 as well next year in 2027, again around 25% of that share. So the share of the project development business is equally distributed over the current and next year, but because the total income is higher, the absolute number, obviously, also becomes higher and contributes more to the at least 1 billion we aim for in 2027. I think that's the way how I can explain it. But overall, the business itself is not back-end loaded. It is dynamic during the year, over different years, but we aim for the 25% also this year.

And let me close that with TELIS. As I mentioned in my first answer is that we are well underway to achieve also our financial goals. And that is also the answer, no, we do not need the TELIS acquisition to reach our fee result target. Having said that, our strategy is organic. But if we see an opportunity that fits in terms of strategy, financials and also culture, then we are open to acquire a business. And here, we really had a very good opportunity, and that's why we clearly have seized it.

There was also one question. If I listen carefully to it, in regards to the interest rate environment, right? I mean, as always, we monitor those developments. It's for us, important because of our resilient business model we have shown also in the past that we can navigate ourselves through different rate environment, given the life insurance arm of our business as well as the real estate arm and a natural hedge we see, and therefore, we are still -- or still, we are in the base case environment, how we think about things, while obviously, always monitoring it and being ready to react. If, I have to say, necessary.

The next question comes from Matteo Lindauer from Vontobel.

A quick one on your European real estate portfolio. Could you give us some more color on the revaluation effects for the European properties? And also how did your vacancy rate develop outside the Swiss portfolio?

And the second topic is on your net new assets. Could you give us a split of the inflows to the respective asset classes? Where were the strongest inflows you have seen in the first quarter?

I think I hand over to Marco for both.

I think it was even 3 questions. On the real estate, we reported the fair value changes, a positive change is 0.3% nonannualized, driven by the Swiss -- Swiss portfolio outside of Switzerland, I would elaborate on that or describe that that's rather flattish development with some movements of the positive fair value changes were clearly driven by the Swiss portfolio.

Vacancy rate, overall, they decreased, positively decreased from 3.1 to 2.9. And this is almost, given also the underlying portfolio mainly driven by the Swiss movement. We had some positive effects also in the different branch portfolio, but we don't disclose that in more details. But overall, as you have seen, the number decreased.

And in the net new assets, I'm also not disclosing all the details I mean, important for us, we have real assets at 0.8 billion, 0.7 billion of it is real estate inflows, 0.1 billion infrastructure. We have quite a large share of index business, so that's securities. And as I mentioned during the call, some outflows mainly related to money market. I think that gives you a good view on the flows, which are overall index driven, but quite a share of real assets.

The next question comes from Michele Ballatore from KBW.

Yes. My question is around more generally on M&A. I mean, I think, obviously, this is more a bolt-on kind of acquisition. But in general, in terms of the approach to M&A, what are you usually looking for in a target? And specifically, for example, in Germany, what is the competition that you face when you identify, let's say, a potential target?

Thank you, Michele. In terms of M&A, I think it's very clear, we have a bolt-on strategy, and bolt-on means we do opportunistic deals because our targets are organic. Bolt-on also means we do not go up too much in size. And if we look in terms of focus, it is clearly in our fee businesses, where we have prospectively and also retrospectively, put our focus. So meaning in the IFA businesses, in the asset management area, that's where we have been focused our M&A activity.

What is key, and I think I've mentioned that -- also before for us, it's the strategic fit that is absolutely crucial. It has to accelerate our strategy. We need, obviously, the financials to be in line with our expectation. And most important or equally importantly, I would say, is the cultural fit. Because specifically in the areas of the fee businesses, there are people behind the success of those businesses. And retaining these people on board is absolutely crucial.

And I think coming now to an example, in Germany, that's what we could offer. We could offer to the founding family an environment where we could clearly demonstrate, we would retain the well-established TELIS brand. And they knew, it's not just that we would claim it. We have a track record of that within our Swiss Life Germany IFA roof, if you wish. We have 4 different brands. Now we will have a fifth one that we have developed that have given individual financial advisers the opportunity to grow, to develop. And I think that's something we have had as, I would say, unique -- a unique offering kind of to the founding family who, as I said, will stay with us on board.

I hope that gives some indication, M&A approach, how we think about it and specific also what this meant for the German transaction.

The next question comes from Henry Heathfield from Morningstar.

Just a few quick clarifications and one question on Switzerland and International, please. Just on TELIS, could you confirm that it's -- the purchase is one of 100% outright? Or is there a stake left for the founding family? And then the 200 million fee income, when do you expect that to fully come into your accounts? And then lastly, I was wondering if you could give us an update on the number of financial advisers you have in the Swiss and the International business, please?

I think Marco will do the financial advisers because I said, it's a Q1 thing, and I will then say a couple of words on TELIS.

On the financial advisers in Switzerland, the number is around 500. And in International, it's on a round basis, [ 1.7 ]. And the number in Germany, I think I mentioned during the call, [ 6,145 ].

And on the TELIS transaction, we purchased 100%. So upfront, we go for the full stake. But I mentioned that the family remains involved on board, is they are there in an advisory role. But we have the full ownership of the company. But that said, they will remain on board, so to say, in an advisory position.

And the 200 million fee income asset, we expect that for the full year '27 to be the first time on a full year basis included in the accounts. As said, closing of the deal is expected in the third quarter of '26. So in '26, we will see a share of that 200 million.

About 1,500 in Switzerland?

Around. Not 1,000. Around 500.

500, okay.

We have a follow-up question from Michael Huttner from Berenberg.

Most of my questions have been answered. You've been doing such a great job. But I had 2. One is -- I know you said this is a Q1 thing, but I just wondered if you can give us a feel for the trend or whatever of net new assets?

And then the other one is -- so, many years ago, I think it was a 2021 Investor Day or '20, I can't remember. The -- I asked how -- why, what the success of Swiss Life is linked to because you've got all these countries and brands and stuff? And the answer then is basically you make the local CEOs come to Switzerland. And effectively, without you doing anything, I think they spend the night or the day cooped up together and then they start competing. Is that still how you do it? The -- is almost like voluntary competition between all these units? Or what drives it?

Thank you, Michael. I mean, first of all, the notion of us doing nothing is maybe not the right one, but with the -- you're absolutely right. We have this entrepreneurial spirit among the business divisions. They stand also in front of the investors, the analysts that invest, they know they have to deliver. They want to deliver anything. That's one of the drivers of our success. At the same time, we also leave them to really live their entrepreneurial spirit and their team's entrepreneurial spirit room to really pursue their ambitions.

Now in terms of the NNAs, we all know this NNA figure, this may vary quarter-by-quarter. You have seen that in the past years. What I can say is that we target 170 billion in TAM by the end of 2027. And we had a really very good start into the year with the 4.2 billion. And we are on track to reach those 170 billion by the end of 2027. And we do not need to achieve 4 billion a quarter to reach that, but we're confident that we reached 170 billion.

Our last question is a follow-up from Thomas Bateman from Mediobanca.

I always listen to your confidence on the fee result target that maybe investors are a little bit more skeptical. With this deal, should I assume the new target is closer to [ CHF 1.03 billion ]? There should be an incremental step-up from this?

And just the second question is on your thoughts on share buybacks in the future. Obviously, the current share buyback. It's almost ended. You've now chosen to do a deal, which I like, although the lack of disclosure on the consideration is a little bit difficult. But how should I think about share buybacks over the next 12 months given you've done this deal?

Thank you for the question. Maybe on the first one, we said the fee result will be larger than 1 billion for the financial year 2027. There's nothing to add. As I said, we mentioned full year '25 that we are well on track to reach also that target. We continue to be that and there's no let's say, additional guidance to be given. You may recall that as a matter of principle, we don't adjust targets anyway. So it's still larger than 1 billion unchanged, if you wish.

In terms of how we think about share buybacks versus also in light of the deal we just have taken, the framework is well known. I think given the time, I will not walk you through the details of the framework, as I said, well known. What I may say is what I just, I think, answered in a question to Michael. We have recently issued this senior bond for general purposes, and large part of that will be used to finance the acquisition. So net-net, there will be no impact on the cash at holding vis-a-vis the level that Marco has mentioned per end of Q1. I hope that gives you some color on how we think.

Good. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your questions and for joining us today. Before we close the call, let me recap. In the first 3 months of 2026, we continued on our growth path and increase the top line in both the fee and insurance businesses. We're making good progress, and we're well on track with our Swiss Life 2027 program.

So thank you again, and I wish you a nice day. Goodbye.

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Chorus Call, and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Swiss Life Presentation of the Full Year Results 2025 Conference Call and Live Webcast. I am Sandra, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions]

And the conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]

Kindly note that webcast questions will be answered after the call. [Operator Instructions] The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast.

At this time, it is my pleasure to hand over to Mr. Matthias Aellig, Group CEO of Swiss Life. Please go ahead, sir.

Dear analysts and investors, good morning. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to our conference call. Today, we report our results for the financial year 2025. I will give you a brief overview before handing over to our CFO, Marco Gerussi, for more details. I'm proud of the operational performance and of what we have achieved in 2025.

We grew the insurance business, meaning premiums, operating results and the contractual service margin. We also grew the fee business at owned IFAs and with own and third-party products and services, and we achieved strong net new assets in our third-party asset management. Altogether, we achieved growth in profit from operations and in the return on equity as well as a strong solvency level. On top of that, we propose a higher dividend to shareholders. Our results show the great commitment of our employees and advisers. I would like to thank all of them for their strong engagement and our customers for their continued trust and loyalty.

Let me provide some more color on the 2025 operational performance. Swiss Life Group increased its profit from operations by 3% in local currency to CHF 1.83 billion. Despite higher tax expenses, net profit was stable at CHF 1.26 billion. The return on equity was at 17.2%.

Operating profit from insurance business grew to CHF 1.1 billion, up 6% in local currency. The fee result was at CHF 858 million, slightly below the prior year with growing contributions from owned IFAs and owned and third-party products and services.

Asset Managers result was, as expected, below the very strong prior year. The SST was around 210% at year-end. Cash remittance in 2025 was CHF 1.2 billion, the prior year included one-offs as flagged before. We propose to increase the dividend per share by 4% to CHF 36.5. This corresponds to a payout ratio of 82%. And the ongoing CHF 750 million share buyback program is proceeding as planned and will run until the end of May 2026.

Let us move to Swiss Life 2027. Our program takes us a step higher on our success path as we strive to reach new heights for earnings and cash returns to shareholders. We are well on track with the implementation of our Swiss Life 2027 program to achieve all our strategic actions and financial ambitions.

We're highly committed to executing our program with discipline and to delivering on our promises.

With that, I hand over to Marco, who will provide more details on the full year 2025 financial results and the Swiss Life 2027 progress reporting.

Thank you, Matthias. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Let me continue today's presentation by taking a closer look at our 2025 full year results.

We begin, as usual, with some selected P&L figures shown on Slide 7. Insurance revenue was up to CHF 8.8 billion due to higher PAA revenues, mainly in France and international as well as a higher CSM release, partly offset by FX translation effects. Insurance service expenses were lower at CHF 7.5 billion, mainly due to lower claims and FX.

The net investment result decreased to CHF 805 million. As a reminder, this is an IFRS 17 accounting figure, which also includes various other items with offsetting gains not reported in this position. In view of our investment performance, we continue to focus on the net investment income, which we will discuss later.

Profit from operations increased by 3% in local currency to CHF 1.8 billion, driven by the operating results from insurance business. Borrowing costs increased to CHF 160 million. This is due to refinancing effects. Income tax expense was up to CHF 411 million, primarily due to France. As you know, the French government introduced in 2025, a higher corporate tax rate for large corporates. Net profit of CHF 1.3 billion is at the prior year level despite, as just mentioned, higher income taxes and borrowing expenses.

Turning now to further selected figures. Gross written premiums, fees and deposits received increased by 3% in local currency to CHF 20.9 billion, supported by growth in all our insurance business divisions. Fee and commission income was up by 5% in local currency to CHF 2.6 billion. All sources contributed to this growth, our owned IFAs, own and third-party products and services and our Asset Managers.

Net investment income of the insurance portfolio for own risk increased from CHF 3.7 billion to CHF 3.8 billion largely due to positive real estate fair value changes. Operating expenses, excluding variable expenses, increased by 2% in local currency to CHF 2.1 billion, mainly in our growing fee businesses.

I will now move on to our segment reporting, starting with Switzerland. Premiums increased by 3% to CHF 10.2 billion. The life insurance market was flat. Premiums in group life increased by 3% while the market was down by minus 2%. Single premiums grew by 6%, primarily driven by new business and higher premiums from existing clients. Periodic premiums decreased by 1%.

Assets under management in our semi-autonomous foundations increased to CHF 8.4 billion, up from CHF 7.8 billion at year-end 2024. Premiums in individual life increased by 5%. This is a result of higher unit-linked single premiums in the second half of the year. Single premiums were up by 13% year-over-year, while periodic premiums were flat. The market increased by 4% overall.

Fee and commission income was up by 6% to CHF 359 million, mainly due to higher income from unit-linked business and from investment solutions for private clients. The segment result increased by 4% to CHF 891 million due to a higher operating result from insurance business.

Income from assets not backing insurance liabilities grew driven by real estate and bonds. The fee result was flat at CHF 55 million. Higher income was offset by continuous investments in growth initiatives such as investment solutions for private clients, which we mentioned in previous disclosures.

Cash remittance decreased to CHF 0.65 billion. As a reminder, the figure for 2024 included positive one-offs of CHF 0.12 billion.

Turning now to France. Please note that all figures quoted are in euros for our French, German and International segments.

In France, premiums increased by 4% to EUR 8.1 billion, while the total market was up by 9%. In our life business, premiums grew by 5%. The market was up by 10%. The unit-linked share in our life premiums was at the high level of 69%. This compares to a market average of 39%. We generated life net inflows of EUR 2.6 billion. Total market net inflows were at EUR 50.6 million.

Health and protection premiums grew by 1% due to price increases. The market was up by 3%. P&C premiums were down by 1%. Fee and commission income increased significantly by 10% to EUR 593 million. Unit-linked fee income grew strongly based on higher average unit-linked reserves, income from structured products remained stable at pleasing levels.

Segment results grew by 8% to EUR 361 million. The fee result was up by 7% to EUR 195 million due to the unit-linked business. As mentioned in previous disclosures, the contribution from structured products declined as the brokerage fees shifted to our operating results in insurance business, where it emerges over time.

Operating results from insurance business was up by 9% to EUR 165 million, driven by a higher contribution from the P&C business. Cash remittance increased by 3% to EUR 191 million due to the statutory contribution.

Let me address two relevant aspects of the political environment in France. First, as mentioned previously, the French government extraordinarily increased the corporate tax rate by 10 percentage points in 2025 for large corporates. For 2026, these higher corporate tax rates will apply again.

And second, regarding the social security health reform, French Parliament decided in December 2025 to introduce a 2.05% charge to the health and individual disability premiums. This will impact the segment result of our health and production business in 2026. However, we remain focused on proactively navigating the environment and mitigating these impacts.

Moving on to Germany. Premiums were up by 2% to EUR 1.5 billion due to modern, modern-traditional and disability products. The market was up by 5%, driven by higher single premiums. Fee and commission income increased by 7% to EUR 881 million, driven by higher productivity at owned IFAs and by a higher contribution from the insurance business. The number of financial advisers increased by 2% year-over-year and was at the end of 2025 at 6,083.

As a reminder, the prior year fee income included benefits from a specific market opportunity in the context of governmental inflation compensation amounting to around EUR 25 million. The segment result was up by 6% to EUR 205 million. The operating result from insurance business increased compared to a relatively low prior year. The fee result was up by 6% to EUR 127 million driven by owned IFAs despite continued investments in harmonization and digitalization of back office systems.

As mentioned at Investor Day 2024, both investments will continue throughout 2027. Cash remittance increased by 2% to EUR 106 million.

Turning now to the International segment. Premiums increased by 6% to EUR 1.8 billion, driven by higher premiums from the private client business. Fee and commission income declined by 1% to EUR 379 million. Higher income from owned IFAs mainly in the U.K. was offset by lower income from corporate clients.

The segment result rose by 10% to EUR 130 million due to the operating result insurance business, which was supported by higher business volumes and an improved loss ratio with corporate clients. The fee result increased by 1% to EUR 91 million. Cash remittance was up by 9% to EUR 73 million due to the statutory contribution.

Let's move now to our Asset Managers, which reports in Swiss francs. Asset Managers' total income was down by 1% in both PAM and TPAM to a total income of CHF 1.1 billion. In the TPAM business, total income was CHF 795 million, recurring total income grew by 6% based on higher assets under management, while the contribution from non-recurring income was lower. The share of total non-recurring income for TPAM, meaning commission income and other net income from real estate projects development was 27% compared to a very high level of 32% in the prior year.

For 2026 and 2027, we expect to achieve a share of non-recurring TPAM income of around 25%. I think the previous year, about 3/4 of the total non-recurring income for TPAM, relates to revaluation gains, which are non-cash. Segment results decreased by 7% to CHF 414 million. Contribution from PAM was down by 3% to CHF 186 million, driven by the lower income and higher project-related expenses.

The TPAM contribution decreased by 10% to CHF 229 million due to lower non-recurring income compared to a very high prior year level. The TPAM cost-income ratio improved to 81% largely due to the higher commission income outgrowing expenses. Cash remittance grew by 3% to CHF 250 million. As a reminder, in the prior year, we had a positive one-off of CHF 20 million.

Net new assets in our TPAM business strongly increased to CHF 17.7 billion compared to CHF 9.5 billion in the prior year. We saw continued strong inflows with about 65% of equity and bond related index business.

The remainder was contributed by active mandates with inflows of CHF 3.8 billion in bonds, equities and multi-assets. Inflows in real assets amounted to CHF 2.6 billion, with CHF 2.1 billion from real estate. Assets under management in our TPAM business increased to CHF 146 billion compared to CHF 125 billion at year-end 2024, driven by positive net inflows and performance.

Let's move back to the group. Operating expenses increased by 2% in local currency to CHF 2.1 billion, reflecting continued investments in business growth, as mentioned, for example, in Switzerland, the back office digitalization in Germany, and project-related expenses in our asset management business.

As I outlined at our Investor Day 2024, we aim to keep life absolute costs stable by 2027 at CHF 0.75 billion. For the full year 2025, life absolute costs amounted to CHF 735 million.

Coming to the investment income. Direct investment income remained unchanged at CHF 4.1 billion, and the direct investment yield was stable at 2.9%.

The net investment income increased to CHF 3.8 billion because of net capital gains, which amounted to CHF 143 million compared to CHF 71 million in the prior year. Increase was driven by positive real estate fair value changes. The net investment yield was up to 2.7% compared to 2.6% in 2024.

Let's continue with our insurance investment portfolio on Slide 16. Assets under management decreased to CHF 143 billion, mainly due to unrealized losses in our bond portfolio and lower cash assets in the context of lower repo positions. Real estate fair value changes were positive at around 1.3%, driven by our Swiss real estate portfolio.

Real estate continues to be an attractive and important asset class for backing our long-dated liabilities in the context of our disciplined ALM. We hold real estate because of the regular rental income it provides and not because of appreciation. Vacancy rates were stable at 3.1%.

Moving on to insurance reserves on Slide 17. Insurance reserves increased 1% in local currency to CHF 182 billion, driven by France. On a statutory basis, we released in total about CHF 0.3 billion of statutory reserves in the Swiss Group and Individual Life businesses as we did in the previous years.

Moving on to the CSM development. As I outlined at our Investor Day 2024, our ambition is to increase the CSM through operating growth. In 2025, this growth amounted to a strong CHF 0.5 billion. Expected business contribution at new business together contributed CHF 1.2 billion. We generated another CHF 0.5 billion, mainly from the back book and CSM release increased to CHF 1.2 billion.

In addition, economic variances contributed CHF 0.4 billion. This increase was driven by the strong equity market and real estate performance and the higher interest rate with a narrowing differential to the U.S. dollar. This was partly offset by Swiss franc appreciation against other currencies.

The pre-tax CSM release ratio was 7% and therefore, slightly lower than in the prior year. In total, the CSM after release representing future profit contribution grew from CHF 14.4 billion to CHF 15.3 billion. Shareholders' equity decreased by 3% to CHF 7.1 billion compared to year-end 2024. This is due to the dividend payment and the ongoing share buyback, partly offset by the profit for the full year.

Our total outstanding financing instruments amounted to CHF 5.9 billion. Leverage ratio remained stable at 23% year-over-year and therefore, within our reference level of 20% to 30%. The SST ratio was estimated to be around 210% at the end of 2025 and thus, well above the ambition range of 140% to 190%. Compared to the SST ratio of 201% at the end of 2024, increase was driven by the positive performance of equity and real estate markets. In addition, credit spreads decreased and the U.S. dollar and Swiss franc interest rate differentials narrowed. These positive effects were partly offset by a net reduction in hybrid debt of CHF 500 million which lowered the SST ratio by 3 percentage points.

Let me add that, as of today, the SST ratio is estimated to be at the same level as at year-end 2025. That brings me to our Swiss Life 2027 program and the progress reporting. As mentioned by Matthias, we are well on track to achieve all our 2027 financial targets.

Let's go through the details, and I will start with the fee income on Slide 23. Fee and commission income increased by 5% in local currency to CHF 2.6 billion. Own and third-party products and services as well as our owned IFAs were both up by 5%. Asset Managers grew by 2%.

Profit from operations was up by 3% in local currency to CHF 1.8 billion as a result of a 6% growth in the operating result insurance business. The fee result was down 1%. Strong growth in our owned IFAs and from own and third-party products and services was offset by the lower fee result from Asset Managers.

The operating result from insurance business increased strongly by 6% in local currency to CHF 1.1 billion. The main drivers were the higher CSM release as well as higher additional contributions primarily driven by higher income from assets not backing life insurance liabilities and the French non-life business. The return on equity was 17.2% compared to 16.6% in the prior year and within our target range of 17% to 19%.

Earning capital, cash and payout. Cash remittance to the holding company decreased by 7% to CHF 1.2 billion. And as mentioned, we had one-off effects totaling CHF 0.14 billion in 2024.

At the end of 2025, liquidity at holding amounted to around CHF 750 million. Our share buyback is well on track. We repurchased shares worth CHF 631 million as of 6th March 2026. The program of CHF 750 million will run until May 2026.

Coming to the dividend. For the financial year, 2025, the Board of Directors will propose a dividend of CHF 36.5 to the AGM up 4% from CHF 35 in the previous year. This will result in a payout ratio of 82%, consistent with our target of higher than 75% and the ambition to increase the dividend per share. The dividend will be paid upon approval from the AGM on the 13th of May 2026.

Let me summarize. In 2025, we achieved growth in premiums, fee and commission income and in our operating profit. Additionally, we saw strong net new asset inflows in TPAM. Life absolute costs were stable, and our operating results from insurance business grew by 6% in 2025, while the CSM was significantly up.

Our return on equity is within our target range, cash remittance, dividend payout ratio and our share buyback are well on track, and our SST ratio is on a strong level.

Having said that, we are well on track with our Swiss Life 2027 program and we are convinced that with our determination, our diligence, and our discipline, we will achieve all our group financial targets.

With this, I'm handing back to you, Matthias.

Thank you, Marco. We will now open the Q&A session. Who would like to start?

[Operator Instructions] Kindly note webcast questions will be answered after the call. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from David Barma from Bank of America.

Firstly, on remittances, please. I see you expect remittances from Swiss Life AG to come down slightly in 2026. Can you give us a broader outlook for remittances this year, including Asset Management where I suppose the result was down in '25, and we have the effect of the non-cash items to consider? So that would be my first question.

And then secondly, on non-life in France, please. Can you come back on the developments in the second half of the year, please, where the performance deteriorated a little bit. And if you could give us some color on '26 renewals and how you expect that to develop for the P&C parts?

And then lastly, on real estate revaluations, for '26, do you expect the share of revaluations to be the same within 25% of non-recurring income in Asset Management?

Thank you, David. I think the first question goes to Marco. I can take a couple of words on the second one. And I think the third one goes to Marco again.

Starting with the remittances. I mean, overall, we have our program, Swiss Life 2027. There are our targets aggregated CHF 3.6 billion to EUR 3.8 billion. All our business divisions -- Switzerland, you mentioned, and also Asset Managers with a number CHF 750 million to CHF 800 million as a target for 2027 are on track to achieve both targets, and that is how we have planned and then set up and going on. So we are on track to reach that.

And to add, the third question on real estate, the share, I've mentioned at '27 non-recurring comparing to the very strong 32% in the prior year. On average for the Swiss Life program, we said we want to have that at 25% on average. And as I said in my presentation, for 2026 and 2027, we expect this average, this share to be on average also around 25% just mentioned. So same level.

Sorry, what I meant on that was just the share within that of revaluation. You mentioned 3 quarters for 2025, I think.

Yes. So I mean, we don't guide in particular on those details. What we have said at the Investor Day is that the program overall for Asset Management '27 is less of cash in it as the '24 program, because of different timings of those project development projects that is considered in the plan also in how to being set up for the CHF 3.6 billion to CHF 3.8 billion. So it's nothing to worry about. We don't guide on details on that for the future.

And to come to the French non-life businesses. I mean, if I look at where we stand, I mean, the P&C business that really has developed positively. We're not fully satisfied yet the way it presented itself in 2025. So there, we clearly ask and work with our colleagues and friends to improve the P&C result going forward.

On the health and protection business, you may recall that we had really difficulties in 2023, sometime ago. We achieved a very, very significant rebound in '24 , 2025 results. If I look at it, there, we are operationally really in good shape. As Marco mentioned, we expect there some pressure from this premium charge of 2%.

But as we say, look, we are used to navigating, let's say, these, let's say, territories of, let's say, the French businesses, particularly also the French health and protection business, and we're really working hard to make sure that also the French health and protection business delivers a nice contribution.

If you refer to this H2 thing in 2025, there are certain seasonalities. So I think there's nothing particular to mention other than it's kind of a seasonal stuff.

The next question comes from Thomas Bateman from Mediobanca.

I think you said the holdco cash number was 0.75. I might have missed that. Can you just talk through some of the moving parts there, because it was a little bit lower than my estimate.

Second question is just on the changes to mortgage payment deductibility. I understand there's some changes going on in Switzerland, but there's some offsetting factors. Maybe if you could just explain exactly what's happened and the impact that you expect on your business and real estate prices, if any?

And the third question is just a question about capital allocation. Historically, obviously, the group has always done share buybacks, but I guess you've never traded at such a high valuation. How are you thinking about share buybacks in comparison to inorganic growth opportunities?

I think Marco goes for the first question, and I may take the second and the third one.

Yes. You're right. I've mentioned that the CHF 0.75 billion cash at holding at year-end and the moving part, mainly that's the ongoing share buyback, the number around CHF 40 million to CHF 45 million a month. We see there. There is almost no income in the first quarter of the year. And then in Q2, normally, we got the dividend upstream into the holding company. So that's the main moving parts, so to say, at the cash at holding level.

And you know the popular vote that you were referring to, I think, took place in September. First and foremost, before we go into all the details for us, we do not expect it to have a very significant impact or not a significant impact at all. There may be small minuses, small pluses, but all in all, for us, this is not a major topic if you wish, I can elaborate a bit in more detail, but I think that's the key message.

In terms of the third question, the capital allocation, the framework we have in place established last time, I think, put in paper at the Investor Day in 2024. That is unchanged in place. So I think there's probably nothing to add. I mean, we are very much aware of potential, let's say, growth opportunities. And if there are, let's say, opportunities for growth in the business divisions, that may either be refinanced by non-remitted cash or if needed, let's say, with the support from the holding. So nothing new to add to cut it short.

The next question comes from Farooq Hanif from JPMorgan.

I just wanted to ask three questions. First one on the fee result momentum, which obviously it's not positive. And when I look at the breakdown, it feels like, obviously, your fee and commission income is up but your costs are higher, particularly in Asset Management. So I was wondering if you could just talk about the direction of travel on all of those elements of the income and the cost and whether you're expecting that cost level in Asset Management to reduce or if there are any non-recurring items in that? So just again, I guess the idea behind the question is to get the confidence that you get to the over CHF 1 billion level.

Second question is what actions would you take to mitigate the health premium tax in France? So I mean, are you just going to directly pass it on to consumers?

And then the third question is in the CSM move, can you talk about some of the experience adjustments that you made? What were they? And is this a sort of thing that may repeat in the future?

Let me maybe start with the first question on the fee result. I'm sure Marco may chip in on the details on asset management. I think I will then also go for the CSM and your second question, I think on the health and protection, I'll leave again to Marco.

First to put the fee results into context. I mean, two out of the three components, as we have shown, have this nice growth momentum. And in terms of the various measures that lead us to believe that we are on track to achieve the fee result that what we have presented at the Investors Day.

What we have said there fully applies again, we are working on those initiatives in terms of the fee results in the IFAs business, in the French businesses, in the Swiss businesses. For example, you may also recall that on the German IFA business, we said due to those investments into the back-office systems that there the development of the fee result is a bit back-end loaded within the program. So there, I think that's to be said directly to, as I said, the IFAs and the own and third-party products and services.

The Asset Managers fee result is a bit different. We expected this reduction of the fee result. You may recall that we have mentioned during the year 2025 that we expect for 2025 a share of non-recurring income in TPAM of around 25%, which is lower than the 32% that we have achieved in 2024, which is a very strong result as we said back then.

Now going forward in terms of the asset management fee result, we have, again, those measures in place that Per Erikson presented at Investors Day. So this is really further growth in the third-party Asset Management business. We have the ambition to grow the AUM to CHF 170 billion in the third-party space. So that's where we are -- have now the CHF 145 million.

And also in terms of the project development, we keep working on that. And maybe Marco can say a couple of words on the cost because that was, I think, one of your questions regarding Asset Managers.

Yes. Regarding the development of the absolute cost operating expense development on Asset Management increased there. I mean, it's on one side, it's growing with the business overall. I think that we've mentioned that the recurring part of the business is growing overall in Asset Management, but also in the TPAM area. There have been some additional project-related costs I mentioned in the speech, that's several different projects be it into the area of digitalization.

There is some efficiency projects that is going on overall on the cost base and mainly to add on that, also the cost/income ratio now talking about the TPAM business, I mean, that has a positive -- has a positive development. It's going down to 81%. There we have a strong target in the Swiss Life 2027 program. So there is a set of measures feeding in grow -- growing the business, investing in growth, but also into the area of being more efficient within Asset Managers.

And then if I may, the second question you asked in regards to the health premiums, one part of the business relating to the individual business there. I think that's too early to tell in all the details. It's a set of measures we are working on with the team in France to mitigate those impacts. And as I said also during my presentation, we are positive mitigating the -- navigating the environment and mitigate those impacts as good as possible. But too early to tell all the details we are working on.

And coming to your third question about this CSM, this CHF 0.5 billion worth relating to back book management. I think it was at half year when we said we want our businesses to work on the back book to extract additional value from the back book by doing this back book management. So we clearly have the ambition that we have their positive numbers in each and every single year. That's what we really strive for.

You may also recall on a broader scale that we want to grow the CSM operationally and this experience variances are one element of that, let's say, growth ambition. Will it be CHF 0.5 billion every year? We don't guide on that.

And if we look back, we also had some years, for example, in 2024, even a negative because there were some significant specific contracts that lapsed. But as I said, strategically, we want to have a positive there in each and every year.

Now in terms of what were the drivers for the CHF 0.5 billion, as you can imagine, there are many, many measures behind that. If I would like to, let's say, highlight too, it's an optimization of the policyholder sharing and maybe the second and maybe also a third one, as you know, the fact that we work hard on making sure renewals happen, that top-ups happen that really these little things that are relevant to maintain and extract value from existing contracts are really captured.

May I come back, if possible, just on one point. So just going back to asset management and the cost. So I mean your commission income level was kind of flat. I mean, obviously, recurring offset the non-recurring reduction, but the cost base was higher. I mean, you talked a little bit about there being some kind of non-recurring elements in that cost base. So I just wanted to understand if I take the CHF 620 million cost operating expense and asset management in 2025, is that a level that might come down? Or would you say it's a level that will kind of stay or grow from here?

Yes, I think I can add two points on that. One is that the cost base and the non-recurring element. Now I'm not talking about the project-related costs, but the non-recurring income and the business. This is something very simply that coming on top. So we have a cost base, recurring business and non-recurring, the better it is, the better the business scales, so to say. Relating to the cost itself, so the CHF 620 million you mentioned and having in mind those projects mentioned where we work on digitalization, but in particular also on efficiency measures, I think you could expect the number getting smaller in the future, yes.

The next question comes from Ahmed Nasib from UBS.

Firstly, on repatriation. Can you talk about how much stock of potential internal loans or capital buffers you have in the subsidiaries at Swiss Life? And are you expecting any repatriations over this current plan in '26 and '27?

Second question on kind of the mix shift in the NNAs. You've got a lot more equities last year because of the index business. Is there still expected to be more growth in that business in '26, '27? Or are we kind of thinking about a more normalized mix on the NNAs on real estate and infra as well contributing?

And then finally, on leverage. It's 23%. Do you expect yourselves to kind of be in the middle of the range of 25%? I guess the question is, is there room to add more debt to the capital stack here?

I think Marco can start with the first one.

So the first one, overall, I think we don't guide in all the details. There is some potential. We are always working on, let's say, optimizing upstreams and using cash for the best possible usage. So we don't give guidance in all the details. I mean we have not planned those things into the plans to reach our strategic goals.

And maybe to add on that, I mean, we talk about that every now and then, these, let's say, internal loans, they support growth. As we also have shown at the Investor Day, we also, if needed, provide, let's say, support from the holding to achieve growth in the business divisions.

On the second question on the NNAs, yes, we talk about index now, I think, for the second year. One way to think about the index businesses, yes, this is kind of an incremental element that is coming on top. And we have the ongoing ambition to further attract NNAs in '26 as well. It's always a question at which, let's say, pace. But for us, this is an area where we see opportunities to further grow.

And as a result of that, there is -- how should I say, there is, let's say, a different share of real assets compared to the business mix that we had prior to establishing the index business.

Having said that, we are clearly still actively pursuing real assets in the NNA.

And to the third question regarding the leverage, you mentioned the 23%, which is below the midpoint of our reference level. I mean, the absolute level of debt has increased over the many years because of growth. So we are using that to grow. And looking into the future, I mean, there is, for sure, a bit of room within that level we could move if we see further additional opportunities to grow, yes, for sure.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Matteo Lindauer from Vontobel.

I have two questions. One regarding the French business. You mentioned the growth rates of the market. And if I'm not mistaken, you said you grew in your business lines below the market rates. Could you give us some more clarity on that?

And the second question on the real estate gains. Can you give us some clarity about revaluation effects of your real estate portfolio outside of Switzerland?

I can go with the first question, the French business. I mean, in terms of the top line of the premiums, we are growing at quite pleasing levels. So that's a very, very good development, but below market average. But what is important here to see that the quality of the business, the unit-linked share we have in our business that we get in. So that really helps. And those inflows in the unit-linked area, they are above market average if you take into consideration our market share in France.

And to add, also when comparing to the market, it's always a bit, let's say, tricky to compare the numbers, because there is insurance only, an insurance only view and then there is an overview, including banking assurance also then having banking products in that scope. So -- but overall, we are very satisfied with the growth, with the quality of the business and in particular, with the inflows and the performance of those assets.

And if I may add on that, I mean, for us, we say profit before growth. And if I may take the example of the health and protection business, I talked about before, we rather have repricings that bring us back into the aspired profitability levels rather than just growth and grow with the market. So for us, it's profit before growth as a key overall thought.

Now maybe on the real estate fair value gains, if we now look at the insurance portfolio, we had this, I think, 1.3 percentage points, and this was driven by the Swiss business. So the Swiss real estate, I have to say. And that means outside Switzerland, we have seen stable valuations. And by the way, that's also the picture we expect going into 2026.

You mean stable, were they positive, flat or slightly negative?

If I say stable, they were stable, so flattish.

The next question comes from René Locher from Oddo BHF.

Yes. Hope you can hear me well? So just a follow-up on real estate was 1.3% of the total portfolio and when I compare it with the average of the Swiss listed real estate companies...

Rene, we have actually some difficulty either you are too close to the mic or away.

Is it better now?

Not a lot, but it's at least better.

Okay. Okay. So let me try again. Just on DC valuation gains, which is 1.2%, and that's at the lower end of what we have seen with Swiss real estate companies. So, I was wondering what the reason is. That's the first question.

The second one, could you just remind us what the value of your real estate portfolio? On Slide 54, I was surprised to see that real estate net addition was at minus CHF 0.9 billion. Just wondering how attractive the Swiss real estate market is for you in the current market environment?

And just a number crunching on Slide 25, I think you did well on the non-life business in France. It was minus CHF 34 million in 2023. Now you're up at CHF 121 million. But what really moves the needle are these further contributions was like CHF 101 million in 2023 up to CHF 226 million. Now we are at CHF 285 million. So I was just wondering if you could give us a bit more detail what are the key drivers in the further contribution?

Thank you, Rene. We try -- I believe we have understood most of the question. On the 1.3%, as you already implied, we do not value our properties ourselves. This is done by an external valuation. I think, it's Wüest Partner. And if you compare to Swiss real estate companies, they have, I assume, probably only Swiss real estate has set our portfolio and the scope of the 1.3% includes the entire book that we have. So that means the Swiss real estate and also a share, quite a significant share of non-Swiss real estate.

To the question you had on Page 54, these negative net additions. First to your question, is the Swiss market attractive for us? And the answer is yes. We believe this is an attractive market. Why is it negative? I mean, first of all, this is not Switzerland only, it's the entire portfolio.

And for many, many years, we have been saying we are active in the market. So we're doing, sometimes acquire objects. We are disposing of objects. So it's a buy and manage approach we have on the portfolio, and that's the reason why sometimes there may also be negative numbers. So it's not an assessment about the attractiveness of the real estate market. So Marco also mentioned that for us, it continues to be an attractive asset class.

And the third question, I think, related to...

Maybe I assume I understood it correctly, Rene, your question in regards to the operating result insurance business, where we have the CSM and then this additional contributions. If naming one or two main drivers for that, I mean, we need to keep in mind that back in '23, in the non-life business in France, particularly also in health and protection, we had kind of a turnaround situation and then quite a rebound and increasing numbers over the years.

So in earlier years, prior years, the non-life business in France was the main driver on a year-to-year basis because of that rebound, we really worked hard on it and also have let's say, expected and communicated to rebound like that.

And the second -- and now this year, P&C was on a smaller scale and also because of the positive development of the result, one of the driver. The second driver, that's the assets not backing insurance liabilities. So that's an asset portfolio behind that. There is different asset classes in it. You could assume quite a share of real estate in it, positive value changes we have heard 1.3%, and that's one of the explanations why the numbers went up from '24 to '25.

And looking into '26, as we said, there is in the P&C area, some potential we see to improve profitability. Health and protection, we have this additional tax from the French government. We work on to mitigate that as good as possible.

And in the area of real estate, Matthias mentioned that earlier, we see the outlook similar to what we have seen in the '25 numbers, so flattish development in Europe and in particular, in Switzerland, positive development. I think that's what we can say to the audience.

The next question comes from Michele Ballatore from KBW.

So I have two questions. The first is on the fee revenues that in the fourth quarter was quite strong in France and Germany. So if you can maybe give more color on the development in the quarter, in the last quarter.

The second question is on the SST. Obviously, I mean, 210% is a strong number. Can you maybe highlight like, even qualitatively the impact, the main blocks of this development in terms of capital generation, market impact?

I can go with the first question, the second half of the year in the fee area, France and Germany. I think there is no particular reason. I mean there is some seasonality. There is sales and distribution pushing hard, working with our clients, and we had quite a strong, as I said, strong second half of the year. I think that's just the outcome of disciplined work and management of the businesses, not a particular reason for the good run in the second half.

And on the SST, we're not sure whether we have fully understood the question. But the way I understood it is we have had clearly a very strong contribution from real estate and equity performance. That was about maybe 2/3 of the uptick. And then all the movements around interest rate probably have added the remaining part when it comes to the economic, let's say, performance. And as usual, and we typically disclose that with the financial condition report, there's also, let's say, positive contribution from, let's say, what we call the typical business development from the moving forward of the SST.

We have a follow-up question from Ahmed Nasib from UBS.

Sorry, I don't have a question.

We take another follow-up question from Thomas Bateman from Mediobanca.

I note that you -- the same strategic target to keep the life cost base stable. But I guess some of your competitors are beginning to talk about potential cost savings from artificial intelligence. Is this something that you're looking at? I guess, more broadly, if you would like to speak as well on how you see AI impacting your business, more broadly?

Yes, I may say a couple of words on that. Clearly, you have seen it in the Swiss Life 2027 program already that in terms of the strategic actions, we have one strategic action that is focused on operations and increasing the operational efficiency. You may recall that in all the business divisions, we have been talking about various shapes and forms of digital initiatives in view of, let's say, efficiency in view of, let's say, additional business opportunities.

So to cut it short, yes, we are clearly not only looking at that. We are using that already in the current program to become more efficient. And by the way, we have done so in the past. You probably don't put it into the, let's say, in the showcase, but for us, it's a tool to achieve our business goals and not an end in itself.

I hope this answers.

We take now the last question, who is a follow-up from Farooq Hanif from JPMorgan.

I just wanted to ask, I mean, the markets have been obviously wild for obvious reasons year-to-date. But could you comment on interest rate differentials? I haven't looked, but just if you could comment on whether there's anything there to comment upon in your Swiss solvency test or CSM year-to-date?

No, I think there's nothing particular to mention. If you look at the markets and you say they are currently, as you say, wild, we don't know where things will go. But then, if we look at what the market is pricing in, it's now probably in the U.S. dollar 1.5 cuts rather than 2, what was assumed at the beginning of the year. In Switzerland, we were assuming probably no cuts at all. Nowadays, it's maybe half an increase that is priced in.

So if we look forward, there's probably on a relative basis for the rate differential, no change. But as you know, we don't know anything more than you do about the markets and how they develop. But that's what we read now from the market.

And if I may add, I mean, not only in terms of the interest rate difference overall on the market, I've said that also in the presentation, the SST, very resilient. We can say the same on the economic part of the CSM as of today, we see year-to-date quite a stable development.

Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Matthias Aellig for any closing remarks.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your questions and for joining us today. Before we close the call, let me recap today's key messages.

In 2025, we continued on our growth path across all divisions. And I'm very pleased with our operational performance in both insurance and fee businesses. We are well on track with the implementation of our Swiss Life 2027 program. We're highly committed to executing it with discipline and delivering on our promises. So thank you again, and we wish you a nice day. Goodbye.

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Chorus Call, and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now discuss your lines. Goodbye.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Swiss Life Q3 2025 Trading Update Conference Call and Live Webcast. I am Sandra, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions].

At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Matthias Aellig, Group CEO of Swiss Life. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for dialing in and for your interest in Swiss Life. Today, we are reporting on selected top line figures for the first 9 months of 2025. I will provide an overview of today's key messages; and our group CFO, Marco Gerussi, will give you more details.

The first 9 months of 2025, Swiss Life increased its fee and commission income by 3% in local currency to CHF 1.9 billion. Gross written premiums, fees and deposits received increased by 3% in local currency to CHF 16.3 billion. Direct investment income grew to CHF 3.1 billion, which corresponds to a non-annualized direct investment yield of 2.2%.

Swiss Life Asset Managers reported very strong net new asset inflows of CHF 15 billion in the third-party asset management compared to CHF 3.4 billion in the prior year period. The SST ratio was estimated to be around 205% at the end of September 2025.

I am pleased with the business development in the 9 months of 2025, which reflects the continuation of our operational performance in the first half of the year. We grew both the insurance and the fee businesses with asset managers posting a strong growth of recurring fee income in TPAM, next to strong net new assets.

With that, I hand over to Marco.

Thank you, Matthias. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm pleased to walk you through our 9 months 2025 trading update. As usual, all figures are unaudited. Figures for the group are reported in Swiss francs and for each business division in local currency. Growth rates are also stated in local currency.

Let me start with our segment, Switzerland. Premiums increased by 2% to CHF 8.2 billion. The life insurance market was flat. Premiums in Group Life grew by 2% to CHF 6.8 billion, while the market decreased by 2%. Periodic premiums declined by 2%. Single premiums increased by 6%, driven by higher premiums from existing clients and new business. Assets under management in our semiautonomous foundations were at CHF 8.1 billion compared to CHF 7.8 billion at year-end 2024. Premiums in Individual Life grew by 2%. The overall market was up by 4%. Periodic premiums increased by 1%. Single premiums grew by 4%. Fee and commission income was up by 5% to CHF 265 million, mainly due to higher income from unit-linked and mortgage businesses as well as investment solutions for private clients.

Turning to our French, German and International segments that all report in euro. Let me begin with France. Premiums grew by 4% to EUR 5.9 billion. In our Life business, premiums increased by 6%. The overall market rose by 9%. Unit-linked share in our life premiums remained at a high level of 66% compared to the market average of 38%. We generated Life net inflows of EUR 1.9 billion. Total market net inflows were at EUR 39.4 billion. Health and protection premiums grew by 1%, driven by price increases. The market increased by 5%. P&C premiums declined by 1%. Fee and commission income rose by 5% to EUR 439 million. Unit-linked fee income grew based on higher average unit-linked reserves. Income contribution from structured products remained at a pleasing but somehow lower level compared to the very strong prior years.

I continue with Germany. Premiums grew by 2% to EUR 1.1 billion, driven by modern, modern traditional and disability products. The market increased by 9%, driven by higher single premiums. Fee and commission income rose by 5% to EUR 634 million, driven by both a higher productivity at owned IFAs with a marginally lower number of financial advisers and by a higher contribution from the insurance business. As a reminder, the prior year fee income included benefits from a specific market opportunity in the context of governmental inflation compensation amounting to around CHF 25 million.

Turning now to International. Premiums increased by 8% to EUR 1.6 billion due to higher premiums with private clients. Premiums from corporate clients slightly decreased. Fee and commission income declined by 1% to EUR 282 million. Higher income from owned IFAs was more than offset by lower income with corporate clients, in particular, from elipsLife.

Let's move on to Asset Managers, which reports in Swiss francs. As usual, in Q1 and Q3, we report on commission income, which does not include other net income from real estate project development. Asset Managers commission income rose by 3% to CHF 719 million. In our PAM business, commission income increased by 1% to CHF 264 million. Higher recurring income was partly offset by lower nonrecurring income.

In our TPAM business, commission income grew by 4% to CHF 455 million. This was driven by a strong increase of 6% in recurring income due to a higher average asset base. Nonrecurring commission income was below the prior year period. To make figures comparable to half and full year disclosures, the share of total nonrecurring income for TPAM, meaning commission income and other net income from real estate project development was 11% of total TPAM income. This compares to a very high share of 31% in the prior year period. As mentioned at the 2024 Investor Day, we expect to achieve a share of nonrecurring TPAM income of on average around 25% over the period from 2025 to 2027. For the full year 2025, we confirm to expect this share to be also around 25%, and this expectation is based on progress we have achieved in our project development pipeline.

Net new assets in our TPAM business increased to CHF 15 billion compared to CHF 3.4 billion in the first 9 months of 2024. We saw continued strong inflows with a share of about 60%, driven by our equity and bond-related index business, similar to what we have seen at half year. Inflows in real assets grew to CHF 1.3 billion. The remainder came from active mandates in bonds, money market and multi-assets. Assets under management in our TPAM business were at CHF 142 billion compared to CHF 125 billion at year-end of 2024, driven by the positive net inflows and performance.

Turning to our investment result. Direct investment income increased by CHF 49 million to CHF 3.13 billion compared to CHF 3.08 billion in the prior year period, driven by higher income from infrastructure, real estate and equity investments, which was partly offset by lower income on bonds, including negative FX translation effects. The non-annualized direct investment yield was stable at 2.2%. And as you know, real estate continues to be an attractive and important asset class for backing our long-dated liabilities. We hold real estate because of the regular rental income it provides and not because of appreciation. Real estate fair value changes were positive at 1.0%. This is a non-annualized figure. For the full year 2025, we expect further positive real estate fair value changes driven by our Swiss real estate portfolio. Vacancy rates remained unchanged at 3.1% compared to year-end 2024.

Moving to solvency, capital and cash. At the end of the third quarter of 2025, the SST ratio was estimated to be around 205% and therefore, at June 2025 level. In Q3, we had positive contributions from equity and real estate market developments and the issuance of CHF 250 million of hybrid debt. This was largely offset by lower interest rates in Switzerland and the widening of interest rate differentials at longer maturities. With a ratio of around 205%, we are well above our ambition range of 140% to 190%. Liquidity at holding at the end of September 2025 amounted to around CHF 0.85 billion. Our CHF 750 million share buyback is well on track. We repurchased shares worth CHF 466 million as of the 7th of November 2025. The program will run until May 2026.

Let me sum up. We are pleased with the performance of Swiss Life in the first 9 months of 2025. We expanded both our insurance and fee businesses. Moreover, net new assets in our third-party asset management business were very strong. And finally, our SST ratio also remained at a strong level. With regard to our Swiss Life 2027 program, we continue to see ourselves to be on track to achieve all of our group financial targets.

With this, I hand back to you, Matthias.

Thank you, Marco. We will now open the Q&A session. Who would like to start?

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from David Barma from Bank of America.

Firstly, on TPAM, please. The fee margin came down a little bit in the third quarter. Can you talk about that, please, and also about your confidence in achieving 25% of nonrecurring income for the year? It would be very helpful if you could share some color on the mix between transactions, project development, revaluations, et cetera, within that 25%.

And then secondly, on solvency, it would seem the interest rate differential had a negative impact in Q3, and I think it widened again in Q4 so far. Are you able to give us a rough sensitivity for the impact of that on your SST ratio, so that we can better prepare for it, please?

And then lastly, on France, the fees were really strong in the quarter. Could you please come back on the comments you made in the opening remarks, Marco, on the sales trend there and how both the structured products and unit-linked sales are faring?

Okay. I think Marco will give the answer on the SST and on France, and I will then, in the end, say a couple of words on TPAM.

David, let's start with the question on the French business. And as you know, also from earlier reporting, we had very strong inflows in structured products, in particular, in the prior year period, and we also flagged that to be expected on a still high and pleasing but rather slower growing level in the current year, and now in this year's year-to-date development and also in the first 9 months.

Unit-linked was the main contributor to the increase, to the very positive increase in the fee income in France because of new business and also performance on the underlying reserves, and structured products still at, as I said, pleasing level, but rather stable, not growing that much as we have expected. In terms of the SST, I think here it's important year-to-date, the interest rate differential, and I'm now particularly speaking about the differential between the Swiss franc and the U.S. dollar, has positively tightened and positively impacted our ratio. But from half year to Q3, this interest differential widened a bit. So that was a one of the more negative contributors to our ratio.

We do not disclose a very detailed or a detailed sensitivity on that. But if you get the sensitivity we disclosed and then the remainder, you might have an idea of those movements also on the ratio. But overall, as I said, market developments in real estate and equities were positive. Also the hybrid debt helped a bit. And on the other side, the Swiss interest rates -- the level of the Swiss interest rates and the differential I just mentioned on the more negative side, leading then to a stable ratio of around 205%.

And to come back on the question on TPAM, maybe first on the flows on the NNA, I mean, we confirm what we said in the previous disclosures that for the full year 2025, we expect NNAs in the upper teens. So this is quite an uptick from the mid-teens that we now have reported. And as usual, we say that in view of the pipeline of the business that we have, and in terms of, let's say, the composition, I think that's what you were referring to in the numbers that we've reported in the CHF 15 billion year-to-date, around 60% of that relates to index business. This is essentially in equities and bonds. And yes, this has a lower margin than the rest, but we are very happy that we have entered that business. We're pricing that business at market levels. And for us, it's kind of on top business that allows us also to see clients we haven't had an offer for previously. You can also see that, by the way, if you compare that with our prior year figures.

Now in terms of the nonrecurring income for the full year 2025, I think Marco was very clear. We expect around 25% also for the current year. We also again confirm previously mentioned expectation that we will be there. We do that, again, looking at the pipeline, the progress we have achieved. And in terms of, you know, the rough shift, I mean, we will clearly see quite an increase of the other net income that relates to project development. This, as we also said at half year, will most likely be noncash. So those will be revaluation gains. And what is also important now we always talk quite a lot about those nonrecurring things, and those are important elements. But as we've also mentioned, I mean, the recurring income in TPAM was also increasing by at least 6 percentage points. I hope this has clarified a bit of your questions.

It has. Yes.

The next question comes from Michael Huttner from Berenberg.

I had 3 questions. One is just a clarification. You mentioned on NNA flows, high teens versus mid-teens. I wonder -- I don't know what that means. Is it percentage? Or is it billions or something? I didn't understand that, I'm sorry.

And then on the cash, can you give us a feel for where we might land at the year-end? Because you've got a little bit still of -- I mean, the buyback is continuing, so it's clearly -- but just to get a feel for -- because I seem to remember your target range was to be above CHF 700 million, but this is really old memory. So any help on this would be fantastic.

And then the other question is on the real estate revaluation. So clearly, you're optimistic for the full year. I was actually hoping -- I was a bit greedy, I'm afraid, 1.1% at 9 months and 1 is a nice figure. But I just wondered whether you can give us a feel for where you think we might land at the full year?

Thank you, Michael. I'll clarify on the NNA, the cash goes to Marco, and I can say a word on the real estate at the end. The NNAs, I was referring to billions. So we had this CHF 15 billion at Q3. And for the full year, we expect a high teen number in billions.

On the cash, I mean, as of today, it's CHF 0.85 billion at the holding. Our comfort range, and we talked about that at the Investor Day, is between CHF 0.5 billion and CHF 0.7 billion. We have now, for the remainder of the year, I mean, the ongoing share buyback, a number between CHF 40 million and CHF 45 million each month. There is some fees upstreams coming in. And with that, I think you have an idea where we might land at the end of the year, which is obviously above our comfort range.

And in terms of the fair value change of real estate, I mean, as you said, we had this 1 percentage point that we reported year-to-date with the clear drivers of positive contribution from Switzerland. You may recall, we had 0.6%, I think, in the half year overall. And we also report stable valuations for the non-Swiss real estate. And what we have seen until now, I think it's fair to say, we expect that to continue for the full year.

So if I do the math, so 0.6% to 1%, would it be stretching it a little bit to hope for 1.5% or...

I wouldn't go into the details of the numbers, but the trend is what we expect to continue.

The next question comes from Farooq Hanif from JPMorgan.

I really only have one question, which is, could you just talk about the low interest rate environment that we're seeing in Switzerland in particular and how this may impact reserving and cash flow going forward, or if it has any impact at all?

Yes. That's for Marco.

We can confirm what we have said at the Investor Day and also at the reporting in between. I mean, for us, important is the yield on our portfolio and also the reinvestment. Reinvestment rate, we see both well above the levels we would consider to be comfortable for that. So we confirm levels and also the numbers of release. We have mentioned that the CHF 0.3 billion, 2/3 of it referring to the Group Life business where we have the policyholder share, just to keep that in mind. And the reminder, the CHF 0.1 billion is in Individual Life. There is also a smaller policyholder share and it's pretax, and that's something we also see to be continued.

The next question comes from Thomas Bateman from Mediobanca.

Could you just comment on -- thank you for the guidance on the 25% nonrecurring. How much of that was cash this year? I think you might have given the number, but I missed it. And if it is a little bit low on the cash side this year, what does that mean for cash remittance next year from Asset Managers or maybe even the year after?

And then the second question is just really a follow-up on, I guess, the low interest rate reserve releases. The direct investment income yield is flattening, I would say. I guess we've had 2 periods of basically flat at 1.5% and 2.2% year-on-year. How would you expect this to develop going forward, I guess, especially given that the mortgage reference rate was cut at the end of last quarter?

I will start with the direct investment income, and Marco may take the other question on the project development. Now we have seen and we rather think about the direct yield in terms of millions. And as Marco said, we have seen it increase year-over-year by CHF 50 million. So I think that's something that we are really enjoying to see that the direct yield has, in millions, the investment income has come up. That's really positive.

Going forward, with the prospect of this reference rate that now has been lowered twice in Switzerland, we expect a marginal impact from that, because there are a couple of things that entered the equation there. But for the full year '26, we expect, from this lowering of the reference rate, maybe CHF 10 million net effect of lower rental income. And please keep in mind, I mean, this effect is then subject to policyholder shareholder sharing as well. So we're not overly concerned about -- or we're not concerned at all with this lowering of the reference rate.

And on the 25% nonrecurring and the project development, I mean, basically, we see over time -- and these projects develop and they take many, many years, there is fair value changes underway. And once we exit, we sell, then there is the cash flowing in. We, let's say, estimate, a rough estimate is 3/4 being noncash this year. And in terms of the cash, I think that's important in the Investor Day and not in our plan for Swiss Life 2027 and the target for Asset Managers, we took that into consideration. And what we've set as a target and what we said there, I mean, that already incorporated that. So we are still well on the way to achieve those goals. So there's no direct link in between.

Just -- I think you said there was 3 quarters noncash last year as well and then 3 quarters noncash this year. To me, that feels like you're trending a little bit below kind of the normal run rate. I guess I'm looking at the conversion of cash remittances for Asset Managers. When do you expect that to kind of inflect? Because as you say, over time, they should trend to the same number, right? So have you got any kind of maybe key projects in mind or time lines in mind when those cash remittances will step up again?

Yes. I mean, it's fair that in prior years, there were higher shares of cash, maybe it's a bit lower compared to those years. We always have the overall portfolio in mind. There is quite a number of projects, larger projects, smaller projects. And with that in mind, we see over time, there is quite, let's say, an averaging of that, but there is always higher numbers, lower numbers, because it depends on the individual project. And when we exit and there's even situations when we believe it's not the right moment in time to exit, so we take that and, let's say, take the rental income before we exit them at the price we believe it's the best offer. So there is ups and downs or plus and minuses. I think that's better averaging over time depending on the individual project. That's why the pipeline and the portfolio behind it that gives us visibility on that.

The next question comes from Michael Huttner from Berenberg.

I was curious on Germany. The adviser numbers are a little bit lower. Can you tell us a little bit more what's happening there? I think I seem to remember there are 2 kind of sets of advisers. There's a kind of big pool and then there's those which are actually converted. And so it gives you -- I think it allows you to see a little bit forward what may be happening.

And then the other question is -- you're being so helpful, so I'm kind of pushing my luck a little bit here. On the fees, so it was nice. For me, it was a beat 9 months, even though the project development. Well, they excluded anyway in at 9 months. But it feels like the unit-linked portion or the kind of Asset Management portion of it is doing a little bit better than I had hoped. How do you see that developing over the rest of the year? Can we still be hoping for a fee number of, I think, it was 5% or something at the 9 months?

I think Marco will take the first question on Germany, and I'd say a couple of words on the fee income afterwards.

On the advisers, I've said it while presenting, we have a marginally lower number of financial advisers. So that's the certified part of the overall pool. There is always people coming in, people we recruit, and some leaving the company. Maybe that's a bit the price of our success that good people are attracted also from other companies. We invest a lot in our services and in recruitment and training and so on. I mean there is, as I said, some periods where we have more inflows and some where people leaving us a bit more. Now the third quarter, there was a bit more people leaving us. I think that's a fair point, but I would like to point also on the productivity gain. I mean, the 5% increase in the fee and commission income in Germany, even adjusted for this situation I mentioned, this opportunity we had last year, it's a 10 percentage point growth, which is quite positive and pleasing in terms of productivity.

And on the overall tool, you mentioned that number is stable, but we're also recruiting and this is people we train and get to the qualification and then over time, they become then part of the financial adviser pool. So we are working on it. The management team is working on it. We are positive on the numbers, on the financial numbers, and also in view of the outlook continuing.

And in terms of the fee income, as you said, we have seen good momentum in the unit-linked business, specifically in France. We continue to track the funds there. We have net inflows. So without giving detailed numbers, you know us, Michael, I mean, we clearly see, as we speak, good business dynamics and also what I said in the beginning that we have seen the recurring TPAM income grow by 6%. I mean that's a good basis to go into the last quarter. So we have seen these high levels of AUMs, both in the unit-linked business and the Asset Management. So that gives us, let's say, good visibility on the fee income from those businesses in the last quarter.

And may I just ask, would you have -- really putting it here, you mentioned visibility, a kind of update on the NNA?

No, but we confirm that we will get the in the TPAM into the upper teens in billions.

The next question comes from Ahmed, Nasib from UBS.

Just one question for me. Can you give a sense of the exposure to CLO, CDO unsecured lending within PAM and TPAM?

Just not sure whether we have heard you. It was the CLOs and what was the other thing?

Working capital finance and unsecured lending.

We have -- so maybe I'm now guessing what your question was. You had some noise in the background. What we have is no CLOs. So we have no collateralized loan obligations. What we have is senior secured loans, but this is, in our understanding, something different. Not sure whether that was your question?

Yes. And working capital finance was the other part of the question. Can you hear me okay?

I mean, either you come back with your question after the call, because you have some noise or we cannot hear you.

We have a follow-up question from Thomas Bateman from Mediobanca.

Just I remember in the past, you've had -- there's been kind of regulatory changes, tax changes, big campaigns that you've run that have been quite successful in various jurisdictions. I was just wondering if there are any that you want to highlight, I don't know which countries that might apply to, but any that are on your horizon over the next 12 months?

Regulatory changes, we talked about things in France at half year. There's nothing new there compared to what we said in the half year, I believe. And other than that, I would not be aware of anything relevant to mention.

No, I think there's always some changes, regulatory changes, but more from an operational point of view, requirements and the area of risk management and technology and so on, but not related to the business.

We have another follow-up question from Michael Huttner from Berenberg.

Two questions, one on credit risk and the other one on the growth in total assets, the balance sheet, I guess. On the credit risk, can you say whether you've had exposure to the things which have happened in the U.S.? And if so, maybe kind of give a feeling for it.

And then the second, in total assets, I remember at the half year, they were down, and I was really disappointed. I like everything to go up. But can you give a feel for what -- I think the total assets, what I mean is the investment assets on the balance sheet. And the reason I like that number is I like your real estate. And of course, if the total number shrinks, then the real estate also shrinks, and then I think that's a bit of a challenge. I just wonder if you can give a feel for what's happening there.

Maybe on credit risk, I'm not sure what you're referring to, but we did...

I know there are 2 things which happened, First Brands and [indiscernible]. And the question really is -- I've asked every company so far which has reported, so I'm not singling you out in any particular way, but it's certainly something on the investors' mind.

No, we don't have any exposure to that. And on the total assets on the balance sheet, you probably refer to the half year numbers where we show the insurance portfolio for own risk that has come down. That is relating, I would say, to interest rate movements. Year-to-date until half year, interest rates went up, and that's what I would say was the driver for that reduction.

And there's no -- okay. So it wasn't due to net outflows at the half year or anything?

No, no net outflows. There's an effect. I think we also talked about that in half year, that is how to account for cash in view of repos and collaterals that also contributed to those movements you're just mentioning. But that's more, let's say, an accounting topic, has nothing to do with real flows, so to say.

The last question for today's call comes from Farooq Hanif from JPMorgan.

I just wanted to follow up actually on Nasib's question because I think it was quite interesting. So I think what he was asking was, whether you have exposure to working capital finance. I think you kind of answered that, but also unsecured private lending, can you give a number? You don't have CLOs, but can you give us a number for your exposure to unsecured private lending to corporates?

I mean I'm still not sure if I understood the question correctly, but we don't have any of those exposures on our balance sheet.

And the private credit we do is through senior secured loans. I mean that's for us very important. I mean if we go into that market, we do it via secured loans and not this unsecured loan. We're just not an expert in that field of private unsecured markets. The number we have for the senior secured loans is around CHF 5 billion on the balance sheet. But again, this is secured.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's Q&A session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Matthias Aellig for any closing remarks.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your questions and for joining us today. Before we close the call, let me recap. In the first 9 months of 2025, we continued our growth and increased the top line in both insurance and fee businesses. We are making good progress and are on track with the implementation of our Swiss Life 2027 program. We are highly committed to execute the program with discipline and to deliver on our promises.

So thank you again, and I wish you a nice day. Goodbye.

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Chorus Call, and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye.