Premiums and DC volume1
Total premium and Defined Contribution (DC) inflow increased by 17.6% to € 10,376 million (2023: € 8,825 million). This increase is driven by strong organic business growth in P&C, Disability and Pensions and the additional six months’ contribution from Aegon NL, more than offsetting the lower inflow in Health.
Operating expenses
The operating expenses increased by € 306 million to € 1,413 million (2023: € 1,107 million) primarily due to the larger cost base including Aegon NL. The internal number of FTE’s decreased to 7,374 (2023: 7,994), mainly as a result of the business integration and the sale of Knab.
The expense ratio of P&C and Disability decreased by 0.2%-points to 8.1% (2023: 8.3%) mainly due to synergies realised as a result of the integration of Aegon businesses onto the a.s.r. target operating platforms and strong organic growth.
Expenses for non-ordinary activities, classified as incidental items and therefore not included in operating expenses, increased by € 43 million to € 245 million (2023: € 203 million).This increase primarily relates to integration costs for the business combination a.s.r. and Aegon NL, as well as costs related to the implementation of the partial internal model and pension reform in the Netherlands. This increase is partly offset by lower restructuring costs.
Operating result
The operating result increased by € 455 million to € 1,428 million (2023: € 973 million) driven by a strong increase in all business segments, reflecting profitable growth and an additional six months' contribution of Aegon NL. Please see section 7.10 for the definition of operating result.
Operating result per segment
The operating result of the Non-life segment increased by € 91 million to € 469 million. This increase reflects pricing improvements, business growth, less claims due to favourable weather conditions and the addition of Aegon NL. These developments are also reflected in the combined ratio. The combined ratio of Non-life (excluding Health) improved 1.7%-points to 91.9% (2023: 93.5%).
The Life segment operating result increased by € 385 million to € 1,076 million. This is reflected in both the Operating Insurance Service Result (OISR) and Operating Investment and Finance Result (OIFR), mainly driven by the additional six months’ contribution of Aegon NL and a positive impact from higher excess returns.
The operating result of the Asset Management segment increased by € 21 million to € 100 million, mainly driven by the additional six months’ contribution of Aegon NL's mortgage business.
The operating result of the Distribution and Services segment increased by € 17 million to € 50 million mainly driven by business growth and the additional six months' contribution of Aegon NL entities.
The Holding & Other segment (including eliminations) operating result decreased by € 61 million to € -268 million, mainly due to increased interest charges (mostly related to the green senior bond, issued in December 2023 and the perpetual Restricted Tier 1 security, issued in March 2024), higher indirect costs and the negative impact from the inclusion of business activities that were previously labelled as a start-up.
Result before tax
The result before tax increased by € 169 million to € 1,447 million (2023: € 1,278 million) primarily as a result of revaluation effects on the investment portfolio, due to decreasing swap rates. As the operating result includes normalised investment returns, this revaluation impact is part of the investment and finance result related incidental item amounting to € 173 million (2023: € 611 million). This was in addition to the increase of the operating result of € 455 million. 2023 was impacted by the provisioning related to the agreement with claim organisations on the unit-linked life insurance transparency file.
The discontinued operations reflect the net result of the Banking segment (Knab), an impairment on intangible assets and the result of the sale of Knab, in total amounting to € -121 million.
The IFRS result attributable to holders of equity instruments amounted to € 946 million (2023: € 1,086 million), with an effective tax rate of 26.5% (2023: 21.5%).
Operating return on equity
The operating return on equity increased by 1.5%-points to 13.1% (2023: 11.6%), meeting the target of >12% and reflecting stronger growth of the operating result compared to growth in equity.
Solvency II ratio and organic capital creation (OCC)
The Solvency II ratio increased to 198% (31 December, 2023: 176%). This reflects a strong contribution from the OCC (19%-points) and the sale of Knab (17%-points1), and more than offsets the impact of capital distributions (-12%-points) and market and operational developments (-2%-points).
OCC increased by € 319 million to € 1,193 million (2023: € 874 million), primarily driven by the additional six months’ contribution from Aegon NL, growth of the business, realisation of cost synergies and impact from re-risking of the investment portfolio.
Dividend and capital distribution
a.s.r. proposes a final dividend for 2024 of € 1.96 per share, bringing the total dividend (including interim dividend of € 1.16 per share) to € 3.12 per share, an 8.0% increase versus 2023 (€ 2.89 per share). The 8.0% increase of dividend per share reflects an increase of the total dividend amount by 7.0% compared to 2023, which is in line with the medium-term target of a mid to high single digit increase, and the € 100 million share buyback following the completion of the sale of Knab, executed in 2024.
The total capital distributions will amount to € 754 million and consists of dividend (€ 654 million) and a share buyback (€ 100 million). The total dividend amount increased by 7.0% compared to 2023, which is in line with the medium-term target of a mid to high single digit increase. The share buyback refers to the € 100 million share buyback following the completion of the sale of Knab, executed in 2024. The share buyback of € 125 million announced on 19 February 2025 (in line with the medium-term targets as presented at the 2024 Capital Markets Day) will be executed in the first half of 2025 and deducted from HY 2025 Solvency II ratio.
- 1‘Premiums and DC volume’ is equal to the premiums invoiced plus the customer funds deposited by the insured DC-products and the IORP-products which, by definition, are not premiums.
- 2Based on eligible own funds and required capital figures as at 30 June 2024.