Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Swiss Life presentation of the half year results 2026 conference call and live webcast. I am Moira, the Chorus Call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. Webcast viewers may submit their questions or comments in writing via the relative field. Kindly note that webcast questions will be answered after the call. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Matthias Aellig, Group CEO of Swiss Life. Please go ahead, sir. Dear analysts and investors, good morning. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to our half year 2026 conference call. I will give you a brief overview before handing over to our CFO, Marco Gerussi. I am pleased with the operational performance and with what we have achieved in the first half of the year. We grew the fee income and the fee result across all businesses, meaning Asset Managers, IFAs, and the unit-linked business. We grew the insurance business, its operating result, and the contractual service margin. Our strong results show the great commitment of our employees and advisors. I would like to thank all of them for their strong engagement and our customers for their continued trust and loyalty. Let me provide some more color on our performance in the first half of 2026. The fee result amounted to CHF 430 million, 11% above the prior year period. The growth is broad-based and includes a gain from the transfer of the international network to a partner earlier this year. Profit from operations increased by 8% in local currency to CHF 967 million. Net profit was also up 8% to CHF 649 million, despite a higher tax rate. The return on equity was at 20.2%. Cash remittance to the holding company was CHF 1.2 billion, up 5% year- on- year. As previously announced, the acquisition of the TELIS Group was successfully completed on July 1st, 2026. This means that TELIS will be reflected in the figures starting in the second half of the year. Let me move on to Swiss Life 2027. We are in the middle of our three-year strategic program and are highly committed to execute it with discipline. We are well on track to deliver all our strategic actions and achieve all our financial ambitions. In May 2026, we completed our CHF 750 million share buyback, and we are pleased to announce today a new buyback of CHF 250 million, which runs from October 2026 to March 2027. Looking beyond our 2027 program. We aim to further expand our business profitably, exploit market opportunities, and increase operational efficiency, among others, by leveraging the advancing digitalization. This also includes a reduction of around 600 positions by the end of 2028, largely through natural attrition. Roughly half of the positions are at Swiss Life in Switzerland and half at Swiss Life Asset Managers, mainly abroad. This measure is expected to generate annual cost savings of around CHF 150 million in 2029 and beyond. With that, I hand over to Marco, who will provide more details on the half-year financial results and the Swiss Life 2027 progress reporting. Thank you, Matthias, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Let me continue today's presentation by taking a closer look at our 2026 half-year results. We begin with the selected P&L figures shown on slide six. Insurance revenue was stable at CHF 4.5 billion. Higher CSM release of CHF 617 million and high revenue contributions from Switzerland and Germany were largely offset by FX translation effects. Insurance service expenses were stable at CHF 3.8 billion. Higher expenses in line with business growth were offset by favorable FX effects. The net investment result increased to CHF 290 million. As a reminder, this is an IFRS 17 accounting figure, which includes various items. In view of our investment performance, we continue to focus on the net investment income, which we will discuss later. Profit from operations increased by 8% in local currency to CHF 967 million, driven by both a higher fee result and a higher operating result from insurance business. Borrowing costs decreased to CHF 75 million, primarily due to some double carry expenses in the prior year period. Income tax expense increased to CHF 243 million, mainly due to the step-up in the corporate tax rate for large corporates in France and a higher taxable profit base. Net profit increased to CHF 649 million, up 9% in local currency despite the higher tax rate. As shown on the slide, profit from operations and net profit include a gain from the transfer of the network business in international to a partner earlier this year, amounting to CHF 29 million and CHF 23 million, respectively. Turning now to further selected figures. Gross written premiums, fees, and deposits received increased by 3% in local currency to CHF 12.3 billion, supported by strong growth in Switzerland. Fee and commission income increased by 7% in local currency to CHF 1.3 billion. Growth was achieved across all businesses, meaning Asset Managers, owned IFAs, and owned and third-party products and services. Net investment income of the insurance portfolio for own risk strongly increased from CHF 1.6 billion- CHF 2.4 billion, driven by equities, infrastructure, and ethics hedging effects. Operating expenses, excluding variable expenses, slightly increased to CHF 1 billion, including investments in growing fee businesses and expenses related to efficiency measures. I will now move on to our segment reporting, starting with Switzerland. Premiums increased by 7% to CHF 6.8 billion, whereas the life insurance market was flat. Premiums in group life increased by 7%, while the market was down by 2%. Single premiums grew by 16%, driven by higher premiums from existing clients and new business. Periodic premiums decreased by 1%. Assets under management in our semi-autonomous foundations increased to CHF 8.6 billion from CHF 8.4 billion at year-end 2025. Premiums in individual life increased by 7%. The market increased by 5%. Our growth is the result of higher unit-linked single premiums up 20% year-on-year, while periodic premiums were down 1%. Fee and commission income was up by 11% to CHF 196 million, mainly due to higher income from unit-linked business and from investment solutions for private clients. The segment result increased by 2% to CHF 469 million due to a higher operating result from insurance business. A higher CSM release in the individual life business is partly offset by lower income from assets not backing insurance liabilities. The fee result was flat at CHF 27 million. Higher income was offset by investments in continued growth initiatives such as investment solutions for private clients, which we mentioned in previous disclosures. Cash remittance was slightly lower at CHF 602 million, in line with the statutory profit in 2025. Turning now to France. Please note that all figures quoted are in euros for our French, German, and international segments. France premiums were flat at EUR 4 billion, while the total market was up by 9%. In our life business, premiums grew by 2%, driven by the pension and protection business. The overall market grew by 10%. Unit-linked share in our life premiums increased to 73% compared to the market average of 39%, reflecting our focus on unit-linked solutions. Overall, we generated life net inflows of EUR 1.2 billion. Total market net inflows were EUR 36.5 billion. In health and protection, our focus on profitability before growth resulted in a 5% decline in premiums. The market was up by 6%. P&C premiums were flat. Fee and commission income rose significantly by 14% to EUR 336 million due to a higher unit-linked fee income based on higher average unit-linked reserves. The contribution from structured products also increased. The segment result grew by 9% to EUR 228 million. Fee result was up by 10% to EUR 117 million due to the unit-linked business. As mentioned in previous disclosures, the segment result contribution from structured products continues to be largely reflected in our operating result in insurance business where it emerges over time. The operating result from insurance business was up by 8% to EUR 111 million, supported by the contribution from the health and protection business. Cash remittance decreased by 12% to EUR 160 million due to the step-up in the corporate tax rate in France impacting the 2025 statutory profit. Moving on to Germany. Premiums were up by 3% to EUR 777 million, driven by higher periodic and single premiums. The market was down by 4% due to lower single premiums. Fee and commission income increased by 10% to EUR 465 million, driven by our owned IFAs. The number of financial advisors increased to around 6,300, 5% higher compared to the prior year period. Our insurance business also contributed positively. The segment result was up by 4% to EUR 125 million. The fee result increased by 6% to EUR 85 million driven by owned IFAs, despite an increase of the commission ratio and continued investments in the back office digitalization. Operating result from insurance business was stable. Cash remittance increased to EUR 166 million and includes a special dividend of EUR 60 million resulting from a legal structure optimization. As previously announced, the closing of the acquisition of the TELIS Group was successfully completed on July 1st, 2026, and TELIS is therefore not reflected in the 2026 half year figures. Turning now to the international segment. Premiums decreased by 8% to EUR 1.3 billion. Premiums from corporate clients increased by 3%, more than offset by lower premiums from the private client business. Fee and commission income was stable at EUR 190 million. Higher income from owned IFAs, mainly in the U.K., was offset by the network business transferred to Generali earlier in the year. The segment result rose by 43% to EUR 92 million. This is largely due to a gain of EUR 32 million in the fee result from the mentioned transfer. Please note that the gain is a non-cash item. The related cash proceeds are expected over the coming years, starting from 2027. The operating result in insurance business increased by 11% to EUR 20 million, driven by corporate clients. Cash remittance was up by 16% to EUR 70 million due to the 2025 statutory profit. Let's move on now to our asset managers, which reports in Swiss francs. Asset Managers total income increased by 5% to CHF 519 million, driven by both PAM and TPAM. In PAM, total income grew by 5%, mainly reflecting higher non-recurring income from real estate transactions. In the TPAM business, total income increased by 4% to CHF 339 million. Recurring income across all asset classes grew strongly by 7%. Non-recurring commission income also increased. This was partly offset by lower other net income from real estate project developments. The total non-recurring income had essentially zero non-cash items compared to a share of three-quarters non-cash components in the prior year. The share of total non-recurring income for TPAM, meaning commission income and net income from real estate project development, was 11% compared to 14% in the prior year period. As mentioned at our full-year result disclosure, for each year 2026 and 2027, we expect to achieve a share of around 25%, which is in line with our Swiss Life 2027 targets. The segment result increased by 4% to CHF 152 million. The contribution from PAM increased by 6% to CHF 101 million, driven by the higher income. The TPAM contribution increased by 2% to CHF 51 million. Higher commission income was partly offset by lower income from real estate project development and expenses related to efficiency measures. The TPAM cost-income ratio stands at 72% compared to 82% in the prior year period, driven by a higher commission income. Cash remittance decreased by 3% to CHF 232 million, in line with the lower 2025 statutory profits. Net new assets in our TPAM business amounted to CHF 7.2 billion in the first half of 2026, compared to CHF 13.2 billion in the prior year period. We saw continued strong inflows, with real assets contributing CHF 1.4 billion. The rest of inflows are mainly driven by equity and money markets. Assets under management in our TPAM business increased from CHF 146 billion at year-end 2025 to CHF 158 billion, driven by positive net inflows and performance. Let's move back to the group. Operating expenses increased by 2% in local currency to CHF 1 billion, reflecting growth, continued investments in business growth, and expenses related to efficiency measures. As outlined at our Investor Day 2024, we aim to keep Life absolute costs stable by 2027 at CHF 750 million. For the half year 2026, Life absolute cost amounted to CHF 355 million and were slightly below the prior year level. With that, we are well on track with our 2027 target. Coming to the investment income. Direct investment income was at CHF 2 billion. The reduction was due to lower income from infrastructure and FX rate movements, and real estate income was down primarily due to a lower asset base. The non-annualized direct investment yield was at 1.4% compared to 1.5% in the prior year period. The net investment income strongly increased to CHF 2.4 billion due to net capital gains driven by equities, infrastructure, and FX hedging effects. The net investment yield was up to 1.7% compared to 1.2% in the prior year period. Let us continue with our insurance investment portfolio on slide 15. Assets under management remained stable at CHF 143 billion compared to year-end 2025. Real estate fair value changes were positive at around 0.4%, driven by our Swiss real estate portfolio, partly offset by lower fair values outside of Switzerland. For the full year, we expect overall positive fair value changes to double compared to the current level. Real estate continues to be an attractive and important asset class for backing our long-dated liabilities in the context of our disciplined asset and liability management. We hold real estate because of the regular rental income it provides and not because of appreciation. Vacancy rates were lower at 2.8% compared to 3.1% at year-end 2025. Moving on to insurance reserves on slide 16. Insurance reserves increased 1% in local currency to CHF 183 billion compared to year-end 2025. On a statutory basis, in total, we released about CHF 0.15 billion of statutory reserves in the Swiss group and individual Life businesses as we did in the previous years. Moving on to the CSM development. As outlined at our Investor Day 2024, our ambition is to increase the CSM through operating growth. In the first half of 2026, this growth amounted to CHF 0.2 billion. Expected business contribution and new business together amounted to CHF 0.7 billion. We generated another CHF 0.1 billion in experience adjustments, mainly from work on our portfolio. CSM release increased to CHF 0.1 billion. The pre-tax CSM release ratio was at 7.6% and therefore slightly lower than in the prior year period. In total, the CSM after release, representing future shareholder profit contribution, grew from CHF 15.3 billion at year-end 2025 to CHF 15.6 billion at half year 2026. Shareholders' equity decreased to CHF 6.3 billion, largely due to the dividend payment and the completed share buyback, partly offset by the profit for the first half of the year. Our total outstanding financing instruments amounted to CHF 6.2 billion. The leverage ratio stood at 25% for the half year 2026 at the midpoint of our reference level of 20%-30%. The SST ratio is estimated to be around 215% at the end of June 2026, and with that well above the ambition range of 140%-190%. Compared with the SST ratio at 213% at the end of 2025, the ratio increased, reflecting the positive performance of equity and real estate markets, partly offset by the widening of the interest rate differential between Swiss franc and the U.S. dollar. That brings me to our Swiss Life 2027 program and the progress reporting. As mentioned by Matthias, we are well on track to achieve all our 2027 financial targets. Let's go through the details, and we'll start with the fee income on slide 22. Fee and commission income increased by 7% in local currency to CHF 1.3 billion. Own and third-party products and services were up 9% and both our owned IFAs as well as asset managers grew by 8%. Profit from operations was up by 8% in local currency to CHF 967 million as a result of growth in both the fee result and the operating result insurance business. The fee result includes the gain from the transferred network business in our international division. The operating result from insurance business increased by 4% in local currency to CHF 600 million. The main drivers were the higher CSM release as well as higher additional contributions, primarily driven by the French health and protection business. The return on equity was at 20.2% on an annualized basis, compared to 17.6% in the prior year period. Turning to capital and cash. Cash remittance to the holding company increased by 5% to CHF 1.2 billion, which includes the mentioned special dividend in Germany. At the end of June 2026, liquidity at holding amounted to around CHF 1.1 billion. Today, liquidity at holding stands at around CHF 0.65 billion, reflecting the EUR 500 million senior bond issued for the TELIS purchase price payment and business growth. Our share buyback, which we started in December 2024, was completed in May 2026. The repurchased shares were CHF 750 million. We are pleased to announce today a new share buyback program of CHF 250 million. We will start repurchasing shares on October 1st, 2026 and expect to complete the share buyback by the end of March 2027. The buyback will be executed by a partner bank through a second trading line over the course of six months. Shares repurchased under this program will be proposed for cancellation to the upcoming AGM. Now to the financing. More than half of the share buyback will be financed from cash at holding. The remaining part is financed from repatriations. Let me summarize. In the first half of 2026, we achieved strong growth in premiums as well as in fee and commission income. Fee result, operating profit from insurance, and our net profit all increased significantly. Return on equity is on a high level, cash remittance is on track, and our SST ratio is well above our ambition level. Looking at our Swiss Life 2027 program, all our financial targets are well on track and today we announced a new share buyback. We are convinced that with our determination, our diligence, and our discipline, we will achieve all our group financial targets. With that, I am handing back to you, Matthias. Thank you, Marco. We will now open the Q&A session. Who would like to start? We will now begin the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered a queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Questioners on the phone are requested to use only handsets and eventually turn off the volume for the webcast. Webcast viewers may submit their questions or comments in writing via the relative field. Kindly note that webcast questions will be answered after the call. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question comes from the line of Michael Huttner from Berenberg. Please go ahead. Fantastic. Thank you very much. Thank you for. I spoke to some investors, and I was thinking they are okay. A solid plus result. I was always hoping for more. Three questions. One on TELIS, one on the 600, and the other one on the fee and commission results. On TELIS, could you remind us what the contribution will be in terms of revenues, in terms of operating profit? How do we factor in that in the earnings? You are also paying more interest on debt. The second question is on the 600 SG or position reduction. Can you give us a little bit of background on this? To me, it feels like you grew impatient. I am laughing, but it is not funny. These are real people, with the progress of the non-recurring outside of Switzerland, and you kind of said, "Well, if that is all you can do, a few of you can do it." I do not know. Also, the more precise question is, have you already booked the restructuring cost? Then the final on the fee result, the CHF 430 million. Now, doing lots of math, it is probably completely wrong. I get to a run rate of CHF 1.2 billion that you are going to say, "Wow, this is nice." What I have done is I have taken the 11% off, then doubled that, and then added 25%. Obviously, I am very optimistic. I just wondered whether you can give us the feel for the math, compared to your over CHF 1 billion target. Thank you. Thank you, Michael. I hand over to Marco for the TELIS question, and I will take the other twos. Good morning. On the TELIS acquisition, overall, more from a top-line view, that is what we said the last call. We will add 1,800 advisors to our operating unit. I think that is one part of the answer. From a result point of view, so the operating result, we said that it will be somewhere between CHF 25 million and CHF 30 million for an entire year. If we now account for that in the second half of the year, obviously, it is not the full number. It is more half of it. Excellent. Thank you. Adding in that is clearly the positive. As we mentioned in the Q1, we said that the purchase of TELIS was financed largely by the EUR 500 million bond that we issued, and there are obviously some financing costs to be taken against that fee result contribution that Marco just mentioned. The coupon was somewhere around 3.5% or something like that to help you a bit on that. On the 600 positions, to give you some background, and I think I mentioned it in my speech in the beginning. You have heard it from me, you have heard it from Marco. We are well on the way with the current program, Swiss Life 2027. We look today already beyond 2027, and we want to continue our success beyond 2027. That is why we want to continue to pursue growth opportunities, profitable growth opportunities. We want to increase our efficiency, and that is why we have now undertaken this cut. Most of that, and I think that is also important, of that reduction will be achieved by natural attrition. Out of those 600, we have until today already reduced 100 by using this natural attrition by selective refilling of positions. There will be another 100 positions that will be reduced until the end of 2026. Those that are affected by that, we will support on an individual basis to help them find new positions. I think that is the background of it. In terms of restructuring costs, I think Marco mentioned that in the half year, we have incurred some efficiency-related expenses. I would say that is a high single-digit amount that we have incurred so far. For the full year, we expect probably a bit more than doubling this amount, and clearly there will be more to come relating to those efficiency gains in 2027 and 2028. Maybe to already give some indication there, if we look now at 2027 and 2028 in aggregate, the ramp-up of the cost savings will essentially be, as I said, in aggregate, be offset by expenses that are related to achieving those efficiencies. Expect this amount that I have also mentioned in what the CHF 150 million to be incurred as cost savings in 2029 and beyond on a recurring basis. To also expand on that, if we think about those CHF 150 million, maybe a bit less than half of that will be incurred in Switzerland, subject to the policyholder sharing, and a bit more than half will be in the asset management division. Maybe that is kind of a lengthy answer of the background of the 600 and the financial impact on that. The question on the fee result that you have mentioned, I am not sure whether I fully understood the math you have done, but I may offer an alternative approach to think about it. Marco said that we have had an 11% share in the half year of non-recurring income. For the full year 2026, we confirm the guidance of a non-recurring income of around 25%. That means for the full year, asset managers' second result will obviously more than double, and that is something we have observed in prior years. TELIS, we talked about it, will also contribute in the second half of the year. We also talked about international. This will obviously not double. We have had this one-off that is in there. As you know, in the other divisions, we have some seasonality, so we would not expect a full doubling, for example, in France or Germany. This may help you a bit, going through the numbers for 2026. Super. Thank you very much. You are welcome. The next question comes from the line of Farooq Hanif from JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Hi there. Thanks for the opportunity. I just want to clarify before I ask my questions. Did you say your cash at holding now post-June was CHF 0.65 billion or CHF 1.65 billion? I just wanted to check if I heard correctly. Then my question. Can you tell us a little bit more about the timing and phasing of buyback? Because normally in the past, you've given us a longer period with a bigger buyback program, and you spread it over a longer period of time. This is obviously a six month period that you're targeting for a CHF 250 million buyback. What's your expectation that you will come at full year with a new proposal and then at half year? Is that going to be the new mode? We're talking about the buyback. My second question is the really large jump in French non-life profit. I think it's a record profit in 1H 2026 compared to its history. I just wanted to understand what's going on there and whether there are any one-offs or whether we're just seeing really good profit measures that you've put into place, which has obviously hit your premium. Then my last question is, if we look at the non-recurring element of TPAM commission in 2H, how much of this is likely to be cash? Thank you very much. Thank you, Farooq. I think Marco goes with the cash question. I will go for the buyback, and Marco will have then the other two questions. For the first one, cash at holding level, I said CHF 1.1 billion was at half year, and as of today, CHF 0.65 billion after consideration of the EUR 500 million bond we issued. CHF 0.65 billion cash at holding. Then on the French non-life business, I think here it's important to consider where we come from. This is, I would even call it now a turnaround situation we were in. Having really, let's say, weak results some years ago and putting a plan in place to get a recovery out of that. There's a lot of different measures on profitability to work on that. And over time, we're getting now better and better technical profitability, which now shows up in the result. That is a steep and a significant increase, which will be positive also for the way forward, but not to be expected just to continue like that. But this is basically the outcome of working on the profitability, technical profitability coming from a rather low level two or three years ago. You also going for the- Again, on the fourth question, the non-recurring income now in half year. This was full cash, so to say, comparing to three quarter non-cash in the full year 2025. And for the, let's say, remaining part of the year, we expect it to be, let's say, more balanced between cash and non-cash components. Should give you some of the guidance. Can I ask one question on the French non-life? Is there a premium associated with this? Is there a combined ratio or some metric that we can think about in terms of the margin that you are making there? We have two businesses there. The P&C business there, we got a bit of a, let's say, increase of the ratio. It is slightly above 100% because of some claims. There is more volatility in that part of business. The P&C business, by the way, is a smaller part of our non-life business in France. In the health and protection area, we increased the ratio by around 2 percentage points from 94%- 92%, somewhat around those numbers. Thank you very much. If I may come to your second question on the buyback. You may recall at Investor Day, we put our, let's say, thinking around the framework on paper. We applied that framework that is well-established and has already been used in the past. We continue to apply that, so there is no change in policy or thinking about the buybacks. It means that we have, in addition to the payout ratio goal and the ambition to increase DPS, this perspective on buyback, and that we consider, and I stress, that we consider additional capital management actions on top of those two things mentioned. If the SST is above the ambition range, and if we have a comfortable cash situation at holding, there is no automatism, you know that. We communicate such things generally at half year, full year, for example, at Investor Day. This is the framework that has been in place, that is applied, that continues to be applied. No change in policy, and that is what will guide us forward. Just as a reminder, for example, in the last program, we had one large buyback that we announced with the Investor Day, and there was an additional, I think, CHF 0.3 billion buyback that ran from October 2023 to March 2024. You see also, from looking back, that this is nothing new that we have done here. Hope that this gives you some answers to the questions. Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you. You are welcome. The next question comes from the line of Iain Pearce from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead. Hi. Morning. Thank you for taking my questions. The first one was just a couple on cash. So CHF 0.65 billion, post the TELIS acquisition. You guided, well, obviously the CHF 250 million share buybacks to be completed end of March and then half of that coming from remittances. Is this sort of guidance that you expect to be at CHF 500 million sort of post the completion of the buyback for cash at holding? Are you happy running at that level? I think that's sort of at the bottom end of your target range. The second part, I think you said half of the CHF 250 million share buyback to be funded from remittances in H2. That looks like quite a high remittance number for the second half versus what we've had in previous years. Is there anything one-off in the H2 remittance number that you wanted to flag? My second one was just on the operating expenses. Just looking at the operating expense growth over the last few years, it's only been about CHF 100 million over the last three years. Just trying to sort of think about the operating expenses X variable. With this CHF 150 million of cost savings, are you expecting that number to be sort of flat or even slightly down by 2029? Is that sort of what you're targeting with the CHF 150 million cost saving guide? Thank you. Marco, I think will take the three questions. I may jump in. I think the first one on the cash at holding, we've always, and also elaborated on that at Investor Day, we have a comfort level or comfort range at holding level being CHF 0.5 billion-CHF 0.7 billion. This gives you a bit of guidance. This is not a regulatory requirement or something like this. It's an internal range we take for some guidance, and as ever possible, we try to put our money, our cash, at work. That's basically the role of the holding company. We are here to give money to our OpCo's to work. I think that's what we can say. On terms of cash remittance in the second half of the year, in earlier years, the number in the second half was always around on average between CHF 60 million and CHF 70 million, and there is nothing in view of any one-offs, as the name say, to be flagged on that. The third question on the operating expenses and the growth, I think basically that's part of our strategy. We aim on improving scalability and efficiency, operating efficiency. That's one part of our goal. We have a clear goal on scaling the fee business. That's part of our strategy, and we have a clear goal and have related to that in the speech on the Life absolute cost. So in the life insurance business, keeping cost flat. So that's basically how we think about cost and being efficient and scaling. Having this CHF 150 million, Matthias alluded to it, and with less than half coming from Switzerland, going through the legal quote and the policyholder sharing and the remaining part, a bit more of it being within asset management starting from 2029, is an effect we will see in the operating expenses. But from a result point of view, because of the sharing with the policyholder, only one part of it mainly will show up in the result, and I think that's how to think about it. If I may add on the remittances question, I think that's an important one. As Marco said, more than half is funded from cash at holding, and it's less than half that relates to repatriation. I think it's important also to understand cash remittance and repatriations are not the same. So when we talk about repatriations, this can be maturing internal loans that are not used anymore for, let's say, the internal purposes in the OpCos. This is the kind of things that we talk about when referring to repatriation. As said, there will be additional cash remittances, but as said, this is not the same thing as the repatriations. Perfect. No. Okay, that makes sense. Thank you. Good. The next question comes from the line of Ahmed Nasib from UBS. Please go ahead. Hi, morning. First question on the network business. What's the cash component and when are you expecting for it to come through? I think you mentioned 2027 is similar to the IFRS result. Secondly, on the French health tax, I think you said you're going to manage that. Is that done? Is that within the first half results already? We shouldn't expect anything more from that component? Then finally, Vita Collective Foundations from Zurich is going independent. Is there any thought of your foundation also running independently? And what's the earnings contribution from that business? Thank you. Good. I think Marco can start with the first question, I will take the second and the third. The network business and the transfer to a partner, this is IFRS accounting, so that the gain we have to account for it in our books. And the cash, let's assume it's the similar amount for that gain coming in over the next few years, starting in 2027. So 2027, 2028, 2029. Let's put it like that. And maybe on the French health business, I am not sure whether we fully captured your questions, but let me mention what we have been doing over the past years. We had a year, I think it was 2023 or 2024, where we really had significant issues. I believe the entire market had similar challenges back then. And we have been repricing, we have been doing many, many measures to restore profitability. And you may have seen that in the first half, we had, in the health and protection business, a lower top line. So that means we are really prioritizing, as in the past, profit over growth. And this is what we have been doing for the past quarters and years almost. And that is what I think we can say. Marco also mentioned a bit, and I now switch to the P&C business. Here we had, in France, as you can imagine, some large claims. So the combined ratio is above 100%, and there we have the same thought. We want to make that business profitable, but that is a different starting position than the health and protection business. That, as you have heard, has improved the profitability from a combined ratio from the mid-90s to even lower levels. Which I think is a pleasing level. Now, on the Vita Foundation and what you could read in the newspaper, obviously, we do not comment on competitors and what their things are, but let me maybe make a couple of comments on our situation. Our approach to the Swiss BVG business is that we have a really wide range of offerings. Clearly, we have the full insurance, which is the largest part of our offering, where we have the full set of risks being covered by Swiss Life, so meaning the savings, the risk, and the cost part. And there, as you can imagine, if somebody wants to come to the Swiss Life full insurance, he or she wants us to provide these services. We have also this semi-autonomous offer. I think Marco mentioned also the growth we achieved there. And we have additional offerings, such as pure risk coverage for semi-autonomous foundations outside, let us say our Swiss Life offering. So that gives you a bit our position. And we are, I would say, in good shape with having this wide range of offerings to the client so the client can choose what fits best for their risk appetite or the risk appetite of their business, if I may say so. Thank you very much. That is helpful. You are welcome. Next question comes from the line of Kaya Batikan from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead. Hi there. Thank you for the opportunity. I have one question related to TPAM inflows. We have seen some normalization in TPAM net new assets from the exceptionally high level last year. Could you give us some color on how flows have developed since the end of June and your expectations for the remainder of the year and going forward? Thank you. On the NNA and the inflows into TPAM business and the CHF 7.2 billion we reported on, I think here pleasing the real asset share, so real estate and infrastructure amounting to CHF 1.4 billion, and then the other asset classes just mentioned, the equities and also in the money markets. In view of the inflows, we do not guide on details for the second half of the year. So far, we are happy with the inflows. We have a strong pipeline. We also intend to further increase the amount of the real assets in our inflows. We can confirm, and I think that is the most important point in view of the total assets under management, the CHF 170 billion being the target of Swiss Life 2027, that we are well on the way to reach that target and also in the area of the recurring income in TPAM, based on the higher underlying, on the higher asset base. I think the growth of 7% of the recurring income in TPAM also gives you a bit of a view on how the development is. We are constructive and positive in that area. Perfect. Thank you. Can I have one more question? Related to the direct investment income. It seems like direct investment income has declined. How much of this decline reflects timing or volatility, and what would be the reasonable run rate for the second half? The decrease in the investment, there are different reasons for that, one being a bit lower asset base in real estate impacting the direct investment income. We had in the infrastructure area an exit in the prior year periods, which was very positive in the prior year numbers. Then there is FX effect, mainly the U.S. dollar on the coupons coming from U.S. dollar investments. There are several reasons why the number is lower. There has been, in relation, relatively seen an improvement compared to the first quarter, and we are positive for the second half to get that closer back to the numbers we have seen in earlier or in prior year reportings. It has some timing and some volatility in it, and also some effect showing up in the net investment income, which is very positive, up by CHF 800 million. Clear. Thank you. Next question is a follow-up question from Michael Huttner from Berenberg. Please go ahead. Thank you very much. I had three. One maybe a little bit on the tax rate, which seems to be going up due to France, and I just wondered whether you can give us a feel for what numbers we should use going forward. On real estate, you mentioned again that you have got less of it, and I just wondered, it seems to be in contrast with your remarks saying that real estate is a lovely asset and I just wondered if you can give us a bit more color on this. Then, a general question on the German pension reform. With your 8,000 IFAs, I guess now, how much benefit do you expect from that going forward? Thank you. Marco will give you some indications on the tax rate, and I will talk a bit about real estate and the German reform then. Tax rate is up, you are right. We mentioned that in the presentation, more than 27%. A main driver, the higher profit base, but then the step-up of the tax rate in France. Maybe two things to mention here. For the second half of the year or for the full year 2026, we expect the number to be somewhere between 25% and the current rate. I think that is something we can say. Looking a bit more into the future, current discussions and also signals and information we get from all the discussions in France, it might be expected that the step-up will roll over also into the next year, so that the French tax rate will remain at the level we will see this year also in the next year. Thank you. And coming to the real estate question, yes, absolutely. Real estate continues to be an attractive asset class. At the same time, you know, we mentioned that before, we are actively managing our portfolio. We may not be best owner for each and every single object that we hold. Some objects may be better owned by TPAM clients, due to size considerations and the like. As you know, we are preferring higher or larger objects that are easier and more efficient to maintain. So we are actually on both sides. I think in the first half of the year, we had a net outflow of real estate. We had years where we had net inflows. So, the outflow that you have seen is by no means a statement about real estate as an asset class. In terms of the pension reform, I am sure you know what is going on. I will not go into all the things that the German government is now putting forward. I think what I could say is if you look at everything that the German government says, there will be the start of this new pension reform on January 1st, 2027. So that is where, if I may say so, the market is reshuffled, and that is where we clearly with our now 8,000 IFAs, which have this entrepreneurial mindset, will certainly have some opportunities to seize. On the other hand, the second half of 2026 will be a bit quieter because in the area of pensions, people, clients, advisors are now waiting for what is going on in 2027. Having said that, as you know, the pensions business, if you wish, in our German IFAs is only one of the product lines among many others that we advise our clients on. I think what is also important, I have now mentioned specifically the IFAs. In our insurance business, I would say given the product we offer, this is a non-event anyway because we are not in Riester. Okay. Thank you. Welcome. The next question is a follow-up question from Farooq Hanif from JP Morgan. Please go ahead. Hi there. Thanks again. Sorry, just a bit of a clarification on Iain's question and another question of my own. You mentioned that half of the CHF 250 million buyback will be funded by cash remittances or cash of some sort. So if we take the CHF 60 million- CHF 70 million, that means roughly a similar amount again will come from repatriation of cash, so internal loans. Can you tell us about the capacity to keep doing this? Presumably you do have a larger balance of internal loans that you could use. If you could talk about that, the reason I am asking is obviously people are worrying that your cash will fall to a low level as a result of this, and we just need to know whether you have capacity to keep supporting from a cash point of view, that buyback going forward. My second question is going back to the other result in the insurance operating result, as well as a very good French non-life result. I think it was quite a good return on surplus assets as well, which I think in H1 was a similar level to H2 2025. I just want to understand, is this actually quite a good run rate for modeling going forward in that line, or is there some kind of one-off positive in there? Thank you very much. Let me try to give you the answer on the buyback. We said there is CHF 250 million buyback, and more than half of that CHF 250 million is financed by cash we have at the holding today. With that what we have today at the holding, that is the CHF 0.65 billion that Marco mentioned. The rest of it is financed by repatriations, as we said, for example, maturing loans that are upstream back to the holding, for example, because they are not used anymore at the OpCo for operating purposes. That is I think the financing of the CHF 250 million. Regarding the repatriations, I think we keep talking about them every now and then. I do not know the exact amount, but as you may recall, the dominant part of those internal loans are kind of permanent financing, if you wish. Past acquisitions that were financed by pushing down the purchase price into the operating companies, and these are loans that are here to stay. We earn money on them from the coupons, and obviously the acquired businesses or the businesses that we have been growing, deliver in addition to that coupon on the loan, obviously their profits as a cash remittance. I think the last point on cash and buyback was the cash level falling below CHF 0.5 billion. There, as I said, we have the CHF 0.5 billion- CHF 0.7 billion as a cash comfort range. If we want to feel comfortable, we stay obviously within that range. If I may go to the first comment I have made, we have CHF 0.65 billion. If I say more than half is financed from cash at holding, you can infer that we want to stay in that comfort range. Second and last point, or last point that also keep in mind that we have a revolving credit facility of CHF 500 million, which at this point in time is not drawn at all. I hope this gave some clarification. I would hand over to Marco for the other result. In the operating result, insurance business did these additional or deferred contributions. Basically, it is two elements in it. One is the non-life business in France, which we already discussed with the health and protection business and the P&C business. The other part is assets not backing insurance liabilities. As the name already says, the additional contributions, this is something from the accounting standard by construction, does not go through the CSM. There is, by design, a bit more volatility in the result. There is always various movements. What we have seen and what I can say is in the first half last year, 2025, the number was rather at the higher end because of some positive developments in the assets not backing insurance liabilities. Now the number is a bit lower, and I would assume plus minus some movements. There is also FTIC's and things like that. This is a level you could expect also going forward. That is very clear. Thank you very much. Welcome. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Matthias Aellig for any closing remarks. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your questions and for joining us today. Before we close the call, let me recap. We continued on our growth path across all divisions and I am pleased with our operational performance in both the insurance and fee businesses. We are well on track with the implementation of our Swiss Life 2027 program. Thank you again, and we wish you a nice day. Goodbye. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Chorus Call, and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye.