Aegon Ltd, the international financial services holding company that has changed its legal seat to Bermuda, has reported increased capital generation in the third quarter of the year.

Issuing a trading update, Aegon said operating capital generation before holding funding and operating expenses increased by 16 per cent year-over-year to €354 million reflecting business growth and improved underwriting variances.

Aegon said capital ratios of its main units remained above their respective operating levels.

The company reported strong sales growth in US Strategic Assets and life insurance business in Brazil.

Aegon said sales momentum in asset management and British retail businesses continued to be affected by challenging market conditions

Lard Friese, the Aegon chief executive, said: “For the third quarter in a row, we saw continued commercial momentum in the US and strong overall operating capital generation which benefited from exceptional items.

“We expect the full-year 2023 operating capital generation from the units to be around €1.2 billion; up from the previous guidance of more than €1.0 billion. I am proud of what the teams have achieved so far and would like to express my gratitude to my colleagues for all of their hard work.

“As outlined at our Capital Markets Day 2023 in June, a key strategic focus is to ensure that our US business, Transamerica, reaches its full potential.

“In the third quarter, Transamerica’s Strategic Assets have continued to deliver growth.

“Individual Solutions generated new life sales of $118 million, an increase of 10 per cent compared with the prior year period.

“World Financial Group’s sales force grew by 17 per cent compared with a year earlier to almost 70,000 licensed agents.

“Workplace Solutions more than doubled its written sales of mid-sized retirement plans to $1.8 billion compared with the same period last year.

“We expect that this progress in the middle market will translate into higher gross deposits in the coming quarters.

“These are important achievements in our ambition to build America’s leading middle market life insurance and retirement company.”