Aegon’s UK profits rose to £71m for the first half of 2020, driven by higher fee income from a growth in platform assets and improved protection earnings.

Aegon UK’s platform business saw pre-tax profits increase to £25m for the half. This compared to £14m in 2019. The providers said this was a result of consolidating its platforms and a reduction in its cost base.

Net inflows to the business were £2bn for the half, compared to net outflows of £1.9bn for the same period in 2019.

The strong financial performance came despite an additional £22m of costs for the half in relation to the Cofunds acquisition. Charges attributed to the Cofunds integration for the half were £10m with an additional £12m attributed to the “impairment of intangibles related to the Cofunds acquisition in 2017 due to expected lower future cash flows reflecting market circumstances.”

The provider also noted that there was a higher retention rate for adviser platform business due to the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown.

Last year was a tough one for the provider’s pension business as Financial Planners continued to face a range of technical problems after Aegon merged its in-house platform with Cofunds in May 2018.

Aegon also said its lower UK expenses and growth in the platform business offset business expenses related to the Coronavirus pandemic.

New life sales decreased by 9% to £17m, which the provider attributed to the impact on protection sales from the lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The overall international picture for the Aegon group made for more subdued reading. The group’s underlying earnings decreased 31% compared with the first half of 2019 to EUR700m. This was largely caused by lower earnings in the US, which were only partly offset by higher earnings in the UK, international, and asset management arms.