Tepid real estate markets dent Swiss Life's annual fee result (updated)

Vontobel Holding AG

14/03/2024 06:46

(Recasts to focus on fee result, adds CEO comment and details
on real estate markets)
       March 14 (Reuters) - Swiss Life  SLHN.S  said on
Thursday that lacklustre real estate markets in France and
Germany caused the insurer and asset manager to post a lower fee
result in 2023.
        The firm posted a fee result of 664 million Swiss francs
 ($754.89 million) in 2023, about 100 million francs below its
2022 levels and lower than a consensus cited by Vontobel and
UBS.
        High interest rates and building costs have caused a
slowdown in property markets across Europe, with German
commercial real estate struggling in particular. 
    Swiss Life, which co-owns the Deutsche Boerse  DB1Gn.DE 
office building near Frankfurt, said it expects to achieve a fee
result next year at the lower-end of its target range of 850
million to 900 million francs.
        "Achieving the fee result target will be more
challenging," outgoing CEO Patrick Frost said, adding that the
company's outlook was dependent on a normalisation of real
estate markets in France and Germany.

    ($1 = 0.8797 Swiss francs)

 (Reporting by Louis van Boxel-Woolf and Andrey Sychev; Editing
by Jacqueline Wong and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
 ((Louis.vanBoxel-Woolf@thomsonreuters.com;
Andrey.Sychev@thomsonreuters.com))