Aegon Limited

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the AGON's first half 2026 results conference call. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to slowly press star 1 and 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. Please note that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker, Yves Cormier, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Welcome to this conference call on Egon's first half year 2026 results. My name is Yves Cormier, Head of Investor Relations, and joining me today to take you through our performance and progress are Egon's CEO, Lard Friese, and CFO Duncan Russell. Before we start, I would like to ask you to review our disclaimer on forward-looking statements, which you can find at the end of the presentation. And with that, I would like to give the floor to Lard.

Thanks, Yves, and thank you all for joining today's call. I will start by running you through our strategic developments and commercial performance in the first half of 2026. before Duncan will go through our results in more detail. We delivered strong commercial growth and robust financial results in the first half of 2026. Our operating results increased to 804 million euros supported by strong commercial momentum and favorable financial markets. Operating capital generation increased year over year to 416 million euros from Business Growth and Improved Claims Experience. Transamerica delivered excellent growth in new life sales. World Financial Group continued to grow and perform, and written sales in the retirement plans remained strong. Asset management had third-party flows positive, third-party net flows, and our international businesses contributed to growth as well, led by Brazil. Our capital position remained strong, and we have confidence in the outlook of our business. Cash capital at holding reached 1.7 billion euros supported by 392 million of free cash flow in the period. We are increasing the share buyback program for the second half year by 150 million euros to 350 million euros. Furthermore, we are announcing an interim dividend of 21 euro cents per share up 11% year over year. Finally, we continue to move at pace with our planned relocation to the U.S. We announced today that the Extraordinary General Meeting to seek Cheryl's approval for the move is targeted to take place on October 8th. I'm now turning to slide number three to run through the commercial performance of the Americas in more detail. Commercial momentum remains strong across Transamerica. At World Financial Group, we surpassed 100,000 licensed agents. More agents are producing and average premiums per policy have increased. As a result, the distribution business has delivered 5% growth in life sales and 12% growth of annuity sales compared with the previous year period. In the savings and investments segment, retirement plans continues to perform well. Asset growth in IRA and stable value products supported revenue diversification and improved spreads. This resulted in an increase in the return on assets to 10 basis points in the first half of 2026. Written sales remain strong, especially in pooled plans, which is our sweet spot. Net deposits were negative in the first half of 2026, largely from a single contract termination following the client's merger with a peer. Within the individual life business, our entry into the instant decision market with a final expense product and now also with an indexed and universal life product has been a remarkable success. New life sales increased by 54% in the first half of 2026. Index annuity sales increased, helped by product enhancements that appeal to customers. I'm now moving to slide number four for an update on our other businesses. In our international segment, new live sales were broadly stable year over year. Growth in Brazil, driven by strong demand for individual risk products, was offset by lower sales in China from product repricing. Aegon Asset Management recorded third-party net inflows in both the global platforms and strategic partnerships businesses. As of 2026, Transamerica Asset Management, or PAM for short, is reported under asset management instead of the Americas. This business had net outflows in the first half of the year. The global platform's operating margin increased by five percentage points to 20% compared with the prior year period, driven by lower expenses and higher revenues, which were supported by favorable market movements and net inflows over the past 12 months. Let's now turn to slide number five. We continue to execute our transition to the United States decisively. We have undertaken several key actions in the recent months. Number one, we announced the sale of Aegon UK, sharpening our focus on the U.S. market. Number two, we issued a $500 million senior unsecured bond to establish a U.S. dollar yield curve. Number three, we reached an agreement with our largest shareholder, the Vereiniging Aegon, the association Aegon, on our future relationship and presented a proposed US-aligned governance framework. On the back of this announcement, we've hosted engagement meetings with investors to gather back on the proposal. And then number four, we are on track with the implementation of US GAAP and expect to start dry runs in the second half of the year. So overall, the transition is progressing at pace, on time, and in budget. So far, we've booked roughly 40% of the 350 million euros expenses we expect in relation to this transition. Looking forward, I'm excited about the next steps in this transition. The next major milestone is the extraordinary general meeting targeted for October 8th, where shareholders will vote on the relocation, governance amendments, and the new omnibus equity plan. Our goal is to align AGON's governance with U.S. market standards and support the company's ambition to become a leading U.S. life insurance and retirement group. In the coming weeks, we will publish the EGM meeting agenda and other related documents, such as the SEC F4 filing. We strongly encourage our shareholders to read these documents once they become available and to vote at the general meeting. Let's turn to page six. Looking beyond the EGM, there is more to come. We selected New York City as the future location of our head office. I will personally be moving there in January, 2027 to lead the transition of our company from its new center. I'm excited that the board has extended my mandate through 2030 and that the shareholders have approved that to ensure continuity of management in this major transformation of the company. We are implementing the necessary leadership and organizational changes to support the future group structure. Will Fuller's role within the group has been broadened and he will become President and Chief Operating Officer of AGON as of January, 2027. And this is in addition to his responsibilities as CEO of Transamerica. Over the coming year, we will push forward the transition plans, gradually building the head office setup and processes till the end of 2027. We are moving at pace, but in a controlled and well thought through manner. I will now hand over to Duncan to discuss our financial performance in the first half of 2026 in more detail.