GDANSK - Insurer and asset manager Swiss Life reported half-year fee result above expectations on Tuesday, helped by strong performances in its asset management and French insurance businesses.

Its fee result rose 17% to 395 million Swiss francs ($463.3 million) in the first half of the year, ahead of the 380 million francs expected by four analysts on average in an AWP consensus.

However, it left its full-year outlook unchanged and continues to expect the 2024 fee result to come at the lower end of its 850-900 million franc range.

Any potential changes to the guidance would rely on the continued normalisation of the real estate markets in Germany and France, it said in a press release.

Swiss Life, which manages real estate assets worth 100 billion francs across Europe, has been hit by the property sector slump amid higher interest rates and inflated building costs in Germany and France.

But the property markets have started to show some signs of respite after the European Central Bank cut its key rates and pointed to further policy easing.

Total income in the asset management unit rose 15% to 506 million francs in the January-June period, partly driven by higher earnings from real estate project developments, the group said.

Switzerland's largest owner of real estate also announced that company veteran Per Erikson would become the new head of its asset management unit and chief investment officer from April next year after the previous boss, Stefan Maechler, retires.

Erikson is currently responsible for the group's real estate business, it said. ($1 = 0.8526 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Andrey Sychev in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi)