Aegon reports H1’24 net loss of €65m, operating result down 8%

In its trading update for H1 2024, life insurer and asset manager Aegon has reported a net loss of €65 million as the operating result deteriorated by 8% to €750 million, reflecting unfavorable mortality experience mainly related to US Financial Assets.

The Netherlands-domiciled insurer’s operating capital generation before holding funding and operating expenses decreased by 5% compared to H1 2023 to €588 million, but is on track to meet 2024 guidance.

Capital ratios remain robust, above their respective operating levels, along with cash capital holding strongly and reported at €2.1 billion. The previously announced €1.535 billion share buyback program has been completed in June 2024, confirms Aegon.

Concurrently, a new €200 million share buyback program started in July and is expected to be completed in the second half of 2024.

The shareholders’ equity per share decreases by 6% compared with December 31st, 2023 to €4.02, while CSM per share after estimated tax adjustment increases by 14% to €4.17

Lard Friese, Chief Executive Officer, Aegon, commented: “In the first half of 2024 we made solid progress to deliver on our strategy to create leading providers of investment, protection, and retirement solutions. This was evidenced by continued strong sales growth across all our US Strategic Assets, further growth in our UK Workplace platform and the business in Brazil, and strong third-party net deposits in our asset management business. Consistent with our strategy to reduce capital employed by US Financial Assets, we saw our capital employed fall by USD 0.4 billion, and we are on track to reduce it to EUR 2.2 billion by the end of 2027.

“While unfavorable mortality experience in our US Financial Assets negatively impacted both IFRS results and operating capital generation in the first half, we remain on track to meet our EUR 1.1 billion OCG guidance for 2024. Going forward, we expect the assumption updates to reduce IFRS claims experience variances and lead to an increase in our operating result. Capital ratios of our business units in the US and UK increased to 446% and 189% respectively, and our holding cash position at the half year remained above the operating range at EUR 2.1 billion.”

Friese continued, “In the US, Transamerica continued to perform well. Individual Life new life sales increased to USD 245 million, up 5% compared with the prior year period. World Financial Group’s (WFG) sales force grew by 13% to almost 79,000 licensed agents, as a result of continued successful recruiting and training efforts. Net deposits for mid-sized retirement plans increased to USD 1.2 billion. This business growth also translated into an increase of US Strategic Assets CSM by 12%.

“In June, we outlined our plans to accelerate Aegon UK’s transformation into a leading digital savings and retirement platform. Moving to Aegon UK’s performance in the first half, net deposits at the Workplace platform increased to GBP 1.7 billion, due to the continued onboarding of new schemes and higher net deposits on existing schemes. The Adviser platform saw net outflows increase to GBP 1.8 billion, reflecting a continued reduction of customer activity due to the macroeconomic environment in the UK, and consolidation and vertical integration in non-target adviser segments.

“Commercial results at our global asset manager were very strong, with third-party net deposits in Global Platforms and net deposits in Strategic Partnerships combined totaling almost EUR 8 billion, in contrast with the outflows experienced during the prior year period.

“Mongeral Aegon Group, our Brazilian joint venture, continued to grow with life sales up 9% to EUR 64 million, reflecting the impact of Aegon’s increased economic stake and continued business growth in both group and individual products.

“This set of results provides a solid basis to raise the interim dividend to 16 euro cents per share, up 2 euro cents compared with the 2023 interim dividend. Aegon completed the EUR 1.535 billion share buyback mainly related to the transaction to combine Aegon the Netherlands with a.s.r., and has begun the new EUR 200 million share buyback announced last quarter. I am grateful to the teams for what they have achieved during the first half of the year, and we will work to build on that momentum in the second half as we continue the execution of our strategy,” he concluded.

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