Aegon lifts capital generation target, says it's done with asset sales
Writes through with management comments from interview
By Leo Marchandon
Nov 15 (Reuters) -Dutch insurer Aegon AEGN.AS said it was done selling non-core assets and would now focus on growing its remaining businesses, mainly in the U.S., after it raised its annual capital generation target on Friday.
Aegon has been divesting assets in Europe, including the sale of its Dutch operations to rival ASR Nederland ASRNL.AS last year, to sharpen its focus on the U.S. market.
"We have divested over the last couple of years, a number of companies and businesses that we felt were no longer part of the core perimeter of the group," CEO Lard Friese told Reuters, adding Aegon was basically within that perimeter now.
He said the robust cash generation would enable further investments in the group's businesses, which aside from the key U.S. market include Britain, Brazil and China among others.
"We want to profitably grow these businesses, make them leading businesses in their market," Friese said.
Aegon expects its operating capital generation, before holding funding and operating expenses, to be around 1.2 billion euros ($1.27 billion) this year, up from an earlier forecast of around 1.1 billion.
The key capital generation metric fell 5% to 336 million euros in the third quarter, while analysts polled by Aegon were expecting it to drop 16% to 296 million.
"That reflects the execution of our strategy on the strategic assets, building up assets under management, both in the protection solutions and in the retirement business," finance chief Duncan Russell said.
Aegon, which booked a $400 million hit from higher U.S. mortality in the first half of 2024 as a windfall of the pandemic years, said mortality rates were in line with its expectations in the third quarter.
It also announced a new 150 million euro share buyback programme to be launched in January and carried out in the first half of 2025.
($1 = 0.9468 euros)
Reporting by Leo Marchandon in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi
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