AXA H1 earnings quadruple on asset sale gains

PARIS (Reuters) - AXA <AXAF.PA>, Europe's second-biggest insurer, said on Thursday that first-half net income quadrupled, helped by 1.44 billion euros ($2.05 billion) in one-off gains related to asset sales.

AXA said its net income for the six-month period rose to 3.999 billion euros from 944 million in a year-ago period that was depressed by a 1.478 billion exceptional loss.

The net result beat the average estimate of 3.588 billion euros in a Reuters poll of nine analysts.

Underlying profit rose 11 percent to 2.22 billion euros, compared with the poll average of 2.187 billion.

($1=.7017 Euro)

(Reporting by Christian Plumb; Editing by James Regan)