Athora Netherlands Halfjaarresultaten 2024

Strong Financial  Results and Commercial Momentum

Financial Results

• Increased Solvency II Operating Capital Generation (OCG) of € 230 million (HY2023: € 193 million) due to repositioning towards higher return investments.
• Gross inflows were 17% higher at € 1,437 million (HY2023: € 1,228 million) driven by higher immediate annuity sales and the inclusion of the Willis Towers Watson (WTW) PPI as of the second quarter of 2023.
• Operating Result (before taxation) of € 312 million (HY2023: € 217 million) supported by increased investment income.
• Net Result IFRS of € 64 million (HY2023: € 115 million) largely driven by the positive Operating Result, partly offset by a negative impact from higher interest rates in HY2024.

Solvency

• Solvency II ratio strong at 201% (YE2023: 206%) for Athora Netherlands N.V.
• The positive contribution of OCG and management actions were offset by shareholder capital distributions of € 150 million, investment deployment, market impacts and regulatory changes.

Strategic Progress

• In HY2024, management actions supported an 11% increase in the Solvency II ratio. This includes the benefits of changes to the Athora Netherlands capital structure undertaken in June 2024.
  On 12 June 2024, Athora Group issued € 750 million of subordinated fixed rate notes. € 284 million of the proceeds were contributed to Athora Netherlands to enable a Tier 2 Liability Management Exercise, benefiting Tier 3 capital eligibility.
• An inaugural capital distribution of € 75 million was made in March 2024. A second capital distribution of € 75 million was completed in June.
• On 30 June 2024, with retrospective effect as per 1 January 2024, the entities SRLEV N.V. and Proteq Levensverzekeringen N.V. merged, further simplifying the legal structure of Athora Netherlands.
• A new Zwitserleven brand campaign was launched in March 2024. This has been well received, supporting strong commercial momentum during the period.
• Successful execution of our digital strategy: launch of new rebranded website and new client portals.

Jan de Pooter, CEO and Chair of the Executive Committee of Athora Netherlands: “We started the year with a strong set of financial and commercial results. I am proud and thankful to all employees for the continued strong progress, enabling the execution of our Ambition 2025 strategy.

Commercially, we saw strong business volumes in the first six months, up 17% year-on-year, supported by the full impact of the acquisition of WTW’s PPI in the second quarter of last year. In annuities we increased our market share substantially, growing volumes by 72% compared to HY 2023.

The renewed Zwitserleven brand campaign was highly successful and we have continued to invest in our portals to provide customers with a seamless experience and rebranded the Zwitserleven website.

With the new pension law (Wtp) now in force, we observe increased activity amongst pension funds considering a transfer of their existing liabilities to an insurance company. As the only pure pension and life specialist, Athora Netherlands is very well positioned to capture the opportunities in this market.

One of the key elements of our strategy is to increase recurring investment income through the repositioning of part of our investment portfolio towards higher yielding assets, offering better risk-return characteristics. This ongoing process allows us to offer attractive rates to our customers and has led to a further improvement of OCG during the first half of 2024.

Our Solvency II ratio remained above 200%, with a positive contribution from OCG and management actions during the period. This supported two shareholder capital distributions in H1 2024, totalling € 150 million, and investment deployment to support future increase in OCG. Our strong and stable capital position provides comfort to our customers and forms a solid platform to further develop our business.

We continue to make a real world impact by making investments that are important for the transition to a sustainable society and economy. In the first quarter we participated in the capital raise of a fund that focuses on deep-tech investments in the Netherlands.

Considerable effort is put into further increasing transparency on sustainability matters to customers and other stakeholders. Next to our preparations for the implementation of CSRD regulation, we launched a sustainability dashboard allowing our customers to monitor the sustainability profile of their savings in our portals.

I am very pleased with our performance in the first half year of 2024 and would like to thank our customers and business partners for their continued trust. I look forward to working with the team to continue building Athora Netherlands into a leading pension solutions provider in the Netherlands.”