(Reuters) -Dutch insurer Aegon raised its full-year capital generation target on Friday after it beat market estimates for the key metric in the third quarter driven by its U.S. business.
Its operating capital generation, before holding funding and operating expenses, was 336 million euros ($354.2 million) in the quarter, while analysts polled by the company were expecting 296 million euros on average.
Aegon, which has been divesting assets in Europe to sharpen its focus on the U.S market, expects it capital generation to be around 1.2 billion euros this year, compared with the around 1.1 billion it had previously forecast.
It had flagged a $400 million hit from higher U.S. mortality as a windfall of the pandemic years when it reported its half-year results in August, and said it expected the trend to continue in the medium term.
Aegon also announced a new 150 million euro share buyback programme to be launched in January 2025, with completion expected in the first half of the year.
($1 = 0.9487 euros)
(Reporting by Leo Marchandon in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi)