Strong First Half 2006 Results

Henri de Castries, Chairman of the AXA Management Board

"AXA's performance in the first half of 2006 marks another successful milestone on our path to Ambition 2012," said Henri de Castries, Chairman of the AXA Management Board. "AXA is delivering on its organic growth and profitability objectives in all business segments.""The strength of the Group and the performance of our local teams put us in a perfect position to successfully integrate Winterthur and further leverage the benefits of being global."

Strong business fundamentals in all segments

- Life & Savings entities delivered strong growth in 1H06, with new business premiums on an APE* basis up 17% to Euro 3,065 million.

New Business Value** was up 30% to Euro 670 million, resulting in a margin of 21.9%, up 2.2 points on a comparable basis compared to 1H05.

- Property & Casualty revenues increased by 4% to Euro 10,815 million, reflecting a good sales momentum in 2Q06.

The combined ratio improved 0.6 point to 96.9%, with all entities positively contributing to this performance.

- Asset Management revenues increased by 31% to Euro 2,090 million, with very strong net inflows of Euro 39 billion.

Both AXA Investment Managers and AllianceBernstein improved their cost income ratios, reaching respectively 70.5% (down 5.2 points) and 70.0% (down 1.9 points).

Solid earnings*** growth

- Underlying earnings were up 19%, or +17% at constant exchange rates, to Euro 2.1 billion. Life & Savings, Property & Casualty and Asset Management segments all contributed to this performance by posting double-digit growth.

- Adjusted earnings reached Euro 2.9 billion, up 37%, or 35% at constant exchange rates, reflecting the strong contribution of net capital gains (Euro 826 million) harvested in the first months of 2006.

- Net income stood at Euro 2.7 billion, up 20%, or 18% at constant exchange rates. Strong adjusted earnings growth was partially offset by a loss on financial assets under fair value option and derivatives mainly due to increasing interest rates over the half year.

* Annual Premium Equivalent (APE) represents 100% of new business regular premiums plus 10% of new business single premiums. APE is group share.

** New Business Value (NBV) is group share. Details on the methodology of the NBV calculation are available in appendix 3 of the press release.

***Underlying earnings are adjusted earnings, excluding net capital gains attributable to shareholders. Adjusted earnings represent net income before the impact of exceptional operations, goodwill and related intangibles amortization/impairments, and profit or loss on financial assets (under the fair value option) and derivatives. Adjusted and underlying earnings are non-GAAP measures and as such are not audited, may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies, and should be read together with our GAAP measures. Management uses these non-GAAP measures as key indicators of performance in assessing AXA's various businesses and believes that the presentation of these measures provides useful and important information to shareholders and investors as measures of AXA's financial performance.

Outlook

After a strong 2005 performance, AXA delivered on its organic growth objectives in the first half of 2006, resulting in strong earnings growth in Life & Savings, Property & Casualty and Asset Management, ahead of AXA's Ambition 2012 aspirational growth targets.

Management believes that the Group is entering the second half of 2006 with good momentum in terms of revenues, combined ratio and new business value.

A prolongation of the present financial market environment with moderately rising interest rates and favorable equity markets should remain positive for Life & Savings and Asset Management.

In Property & Casualty, barring any major catastrophic event, and despite the less positive underwriting environment, the combined ratio should remain in line with first half 2006 level.

First half realized capital gains exceed guidance for 2006.

AXA's continued strong organic growth focus, augmented by the earnings accretive pending acquisition of Winterthur, will enhance AXA's long term capacity to successfully deliver an earnings growth per share in line with Ambition 2012.