Aegon’s platform assets hit £140bn during the first half of the year as it completed the integration of Cofunds three years after it was bought.
The provider announced in its half-year results published on Thursday that platform assets had increased £12bn over the period, from £128bn at the end of 2018.
Final integration of Cofunds completed during the period and in May it migrated about £8bn of assets and 300,000 Nationwide customers to the platform.
The integration resulted in £40m in annual savings, a figure set to hit £60m later this year as legacy systems are decommissioned and its Hove office is closed.
Overall the UK business delivered profits of £61m over H1.
‘Passed a milestone’
Aegon UK chief executive Adrian Grace (pictured) said: “In the first half of the year we passed another milestone with platform assets rising from £128bn at the start of the year and passing the £140bn level for the first time. In combination with our existing business, total assets administered on behalf of customers hit £173bn.
“In addition to strong asset growth, we generated a profit of £61m and remitted £160m to Aegon group – our highest ever dividend paid. These figures reflect a consistent and profitable strategy by the business to develop a scale investment platform, while efficiently servicing and supporting our customers in older products.”
Group AUM increase
The Aegon group’s overall assets under management increased by €23bn (£21bn) over the period to €339bn. This was primarily due to positive market movements and external third-party net inflows offsetting negative net flows.
Underlying earnings before tax from were down by 27% to €60m in the first half of 2019. Aegon said this decrease was a result of lower earnings in the Americas, Europe and its Chinese asset management joint venture Aegon Industrial Fund Management Company (AIFMC).
Total revenues decreased by 8% to €278m because of a dip in performance fees, which offset US dollar strengthening. Performance fees decreased from €26m to €4m over the period, mainly driven by lower performance fees from AIFMC.
