All shook up: Aegon’s first quarter affected by volatile markets
Aegon has had a bumpy ride during its first quarter of this year, revealing today that volatile markets had caused its net income to half.
The Dutch insurer reported that its net income had dropped to €143m (£112.6m) for its first quarter of 2016, down 50 per cent from €289m the same time last year, although an improvement on the previous quarter's net loss of €580m.
Meanwhile, sales for the most recent quarter rose to €3.6bn, up 36 per cent from €2.6bn the same time the year before and 23 per cent compared with €2.9bn in the previous quarter.
"Aegon’s underlying earnings and net income for the first quarter were impacted by volatile financial markets, which also had an impact on our capital position," said Alex Wynaendts, chief executive. "Our Solvency II ratio [which declined to approximately 155 per cent] nonetheless remains well within our target range, and also reflects the impact of the full share buyback and anticipated pay-out of the final dividend."
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Earlier this year, Aegon agreed to buy BlackRock's UK Defined Contribution (DC) platform and administration arm and announced a disposal of a substantial chunk of its UK annuity portfolio to Rothesay Life.
"By transforming our businesses we aim to become a more cost-effective organisation, while continuing to grow and diversify our customer base across all our markets," Wynaendts remarked. "This is leading to very strong deposits, especially in our fee-based retirement plan and asset management businesses."
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At time of writing, shares in the company, which is listed in Amsterdam, were trading down 10.5 per cent at €4.33.