The firm said the growth reflected strong markets and a number of ongoing investments in the business.

Aegon UK posted an operating profit of £38 million at its UK business, marking a 16% increase from the year before.

The firm said that higher fee revenues from the growth of the group’s platform business and favourable equity markets, along with lower expenses, offset the impacts from the loss of earnings due to the sale of the Stonebridge business and a gradual run-off of the traditional product portfolio.

The firm’s net deposits stood at £1.5bn, down from some £2bn in the second quarter of 2020. However, net deposits in the firm’s workplace pensions business reached £1.1bn, almost doubling up on the figure recorded in the same period a year earlier.

Net deposits for the institutional business dropped to £879m from £1.5bn in the same period last year. Aegon stated that the institutional business is low-margin and deposits can be “lumpy”.

Aegon also announced an increase in its interim dividend by EUR 0.02 to EUR 0.08 per common share.

Mike Holliday-Williams, chief executive of Aegon UK, said the firm had achieved a “significant milestone” with the assets under administration following a good quarter.

Lard Friese, CEO, added that he was encouraged by the steady progress the firm had made on its strategic and financial transformation in the second quarter of 2021.

He also thanked the firm’s 22,000 employees who “in the face of an ongoing pandemic and change, followed through on our strategic and operational plans in the second quarter.”