Athene Holding Ltd had a strong fourth quarter, with net income of $1.06 billion, or $5.44 per diluted share, compared to $432 million for the same period in 2019.

Adjusted operating income for the quarter was $558 million, or $2.85 per share, beating analysts’ estimate of $2.25.

For the full year, the Bermudian-based financial services company achieved a profit of $1.44 billion, or $8.43 per share, down from $2.13 billion the previous year.

Adjusted operating income for the year was $1.24 billion, which compared with $1.28 billion in 2019.

Jim Belardi, chief executive officer at Athene, said: “Our robust fourth quarter results capped a year of record growth in which we generated $56 billion of gross inflows across our diversified funding channels, underwritten to very attractive returns above our historical average.

“A primary driver of this activity was record net organic growth of 27 per cent for the year. Despite the pandemic, our focus and discipline to execute Athene’s business strategy never wavered – originate low cost, persistent funding and employ alpha-generating investing capabilities to drive compelling net spread.”

At the end of 2020, Athene had gross invested assets of $175.4 billion, up from $124.5 billion at the end of 2019.

Among its business highlights for the quarter, Athene completed a record six risk transfer transactions totalling $4.2 billion. Among those was a $1.7 billion transaction with General Electric to serve about 70,000 retired employees. Athene said this highlighted its “strong market position as a solutions provider for plan sponsors”.

Commenting on the earnings report, Mr Belardi said: “Our strong financial results demonstrate both the resilience of our model and our ability to drive consistent excellence even through periods of volatility. The significant profitable growth we generated in 2020 will increase our earnings power in 2021 and beyond.

“Importantly, we continue to see an abundance of organic and inorganic opportunities in front of us. As one of the best capitalised businesses in the industry, we will use our position of strength to build upon our compelling track record of delivering long-term shareholder value – 16 per cent compound annual growth in adjusted book value per share over the past 11 years.”