Aegon 2nd-quarter earnings miss forecasts, reviews U.S. operations

(Adds CEO quote, more results figures)

AMSTERDAM, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Dutch-based insurer Aegon NV is reviewing parts of its business in the United States, it said on Thursday, after reporting second-quarter earnings that missed estimates, partly due to adverse claims in the U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) .

Pre (Shanghai: 600048.SS - news) -tax underlying earnings were 435 million euros ($486 million), down from 505 million euros a year ago. Analysts polled by the company had forecast 481 million euros.

It reported a net loss of 385 million euros after booking a 618 million euros loss on the sale of its 9 billion pound annuity portfolio in Britain, in two transactions, to Rothesay Life and Legal & General (LSE: LGEN.L - news) earlier this year.

"Earnings were affected by exceptionally low interest rates, adverse claims experience in our life and health businesses in the US, and the book loss from the divestment of our UK annuity portfolio," Chief Executive Alex Wynaendts said.

The company said its "geographic footprint in the U.S. is under evaluation".

Chief Financial Officer Darryl Button said U.S. operations the company may dispose of include its runoff "Boli-Coli" or bank and corporate-owned life insurance products, and a variable annuity product it no longer offers.

"Earnings of these are close to zero, perhaps $10 million a year, but there's a lot of capital associated with holding them, so there's a low return on capital for us," Button said in an interview.

Aegon (Swiss: AGN.SW - news) is also raising rates on some products and cutting $150 million in costs in the U.S., where it does two-thirds of its business.

The company's solvency under Europe's new Solvency II regime rose to 158 percent from 155 percent at the end of the first quarter. Analysts use the metric to gauge a company's ability to pay dividends.

Button said the improvement was mostly due to the company's Dutch operations, as the company refined its risk modelling, which had been overly conservative when Solvency II went into effect Jan. 1.

Aegon raised its 2016 interim divided to 13 cents, from 12 cents in 2015.

Separately, Aegon said it would acquire UK online investment platform Cofunds for 140 million pounds ($182 million) from Legal & General. ($1 = 0.8959 euros) ($1 = 0.7692 pounds) (Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Susan Thomas)