Share Performance and Historical Comparison

The Covid-19 pandemic triggered major uncertainty on the stock exchanges. This led to significant upheavals on the global equity and bond markets, particularly in the first quarter of 2020. By bundling monetary and fiscal policy measures, governments and central banks were able to calm the markets for the most part in the following quarters. Thanks to the rapid successes in the development and approval of vaccines, the first vaccinations had been administered by the end of the year. This led to a strong market recovery, although the macroeconomic situation deteriorated again in the fourth quarter due to renewed lockdown measures.

In this challenging environment, the Swiss Market Index (SMI) posted a performance of +1%. The Swiss Life share closed the year 15% down, thereby exhibiting a similar trend to the European insurance industry index Dow Jones STOXX 600 Insurance (–14%). Insurance stocks thus underperformed compared to the SMI.

At the Annual General Meeting of Swiss Life Holding Ltd in April 2020, the shareholders approved a repayment of par value of CHF 5.00 per share and an ordinary dividend distribution of CHF 15.00 per share. In March 2020, Swiss Life initiated another share buyback programme amounting to CHF 400 million. At the end of March 2020, Swiss Life, like all other major listed banks and insurance companies in Switzerland, temporarily suspended its share buyback programme having repurchased shares worth CHF 29 million. On 4 January 2021, Swiss Life resumed the share buyback programme and will repurchase the remaining CHF 371 million under the programme by the end of May 2021.