Life insurance provider Swiss Life has continued its turnaround with an impressive increase of 30% in its profits for the first half of the year.

Swiss Life delivered net profit of CHF463 million ($376 million) in the first six months of the year as a result of continued cost cutting measures and tax gains stemming from a change in French law.

The impressive results come just three years after the company was heavily in the red and suffering circa CHF1 billion losses. Profits, which beat analyst forecasts, included the CHF100 million French tax gain and the reorganization of the company’s Swiss real estate business. Additionally, Swiss Life cut operating costs by 2%.

Rolf Dörig, company CEO, commented: These results confirm the progress we have been making over the last three years. We seized the growth opportunities abroad and increased our profitability in Switzerland. We are well on the way to improving the basic insurance result substantially on a sustainable basis. This will put us in a position to achieve a net result of CHF1 billion by 2008.