GENEVA: Swiss Life Holding AG, Switzerland’s biggest life insurer, plans to pay dividends above estimates after higher fee income lifted full-year profit by 7 percent.
Swiss Life proposed a payout of 8.5 Swiss francs per share for last year, up from SF6.50 a year earlier, the company said in a statement yesterday.
That beat the Bloomberg Dividend Forecast of SF8. Net income increased to SF878 million (US$877.5 million), compared with an SF824 million average estimate of 14 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
The Zurich-based insurer said in November last year that it planned to pay a dividend of at least SF8 for last year and intends to distribute between 30 percent and 50 percent of profit in dividends after years of payouts that trailed its peers.
