Swiss Life Holding AG Wednesday reported a 5% rise in third-quarter premiums and said it was confident about its future, despite a continually difficult market environment.
The Zurich-based life insurer said premiums rose to 3.22 billion Swiss francs, or about $3.19 billion, from CHF3.08 billion in the year-earlier period.
The result beat analyst forecasts of CHF3.1 billion as the company was able to improve sales in France, its biggest single market, and Germany. In Switzerland, premiums continued to fall.
“In France, Germany, we increased our premium income, which gives us confidence in light of the persistently challenging market environment,” said Chief Executive Bruno Pfister.
“In addition to our successful growth and product initiatives, we introduced measures which succeeded in reducing operating costs by a further 3% between July and September,” he said.
Swiss Life earlier this year said it aims to reach savings ofup to CHF400 million by 2012. The measures also include some 500 job cuts in Switzerland.
Swiss Life, which didn’t publish an interim net profit figure, said that its solvency ratio, which denotes balance sheet strength, rose to 168% at the end of September from $155 at the end of June.
