Nasib Ahmed's questions to Aegon Ltd (AEG) leadership • H1 2025
Question
Nasib Ahmed of UBS Group AG asked about the M&A outlook, including potential divestitures of financial assets and acquisitions, and how a U.S. re-domiciliation might influence this. He also questioned why the U.S. IFRS operating profit guidance was raised while the OCG guidance remained unchanged.
Answer
CEO Lard Friese stated that Aegon's disciplined M&A approach is unchanged but being physically located in their largest market would be beneficial. CFO Duncan Russell added that Aegon continues to evaluate all options for its financial assets. Regarding guidance, Mr. Russell explained the divergence is due to strong IFRS profit performance in H1, which is expected to continue, whereas OCG performed more in line with previous guidance. He highlighted that accounting differences, such as the treatment of new business growth, cause the metrics to move differently.