A strong investment performance helped Swiss Re to a 17% rise in profits for the first quarter -- to $1.4bn, from $1.2bn in the first quarter of 2014.
The return on investment was 3.9% (3.7% in Q1 2014). David Cole, Swiss Re's group CFO, said, "We've been able to achieve a strong investment result despite ongoing low interest rates amid an environment of financial repression."
The investment performance was driven by net investment income and realised gains from sales of fixed-income securities, Net realised gains were $380m in Q1 2015 against $234m Q1 2014.
Admin Re, the group's closed life insurance business, showed a strong return on investments in the first quarter of 5.2% (4.9% Q1 2014), bolstered by net realised gains of $112m, "mainly from portfolio repositioning in preparation for Solvency II. The fixed-income running yield was 3.5%
Swiss Re's overall investment portfolio is 40% government bonds, 26% corporate bonds, 9% short-term investments and 7% equities, with the remainder in cash and alternatives. At the end of the first quarter, this translated into $50.8bn in government bonds, $32.7bn in corporate bonds, $11.5bn in short-term investments and $8.7bn in equities.
The government bond portfolio is dominated by the US (43%) and the UK (19%). The credit portfolio is 94% investment-grade.
Within equities and alternatives, Swiss Re said there were no significant changes in the quarter to the holdings of private equity, principal investments or real estate; there was a slight reduction in the allocation to hedge funds.
The increase in listed equites during the first quarter to $4.20bn (from $3.12bn in Q1 2014) was driven by the purchases of credit exchange-traded funds, Swiss Re noted.
The amount invested in private equity at the end of the first quarter was $1.64bn.