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AXA Equitable Holdings Reports Third Quarter 2018 Results

November 12, 2018 4:30 PM

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Third quarter Net Loss of $(496) million; Net Loss per diluted share of $(0.89)

Non-GAAP Operating Earnings1 of $693 million; Non-GAAP Operating Earnings per diluted share of $1.23

Returned $130 million to shareholders during the third quarter

Authorized additional $300 million to our share repurchase program

Completed annual actuarial assumption updates

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NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- AXA Equitable Holdings, Inc. (“AXA Equitable Holdings”, or the “Company”) (NYSE: EQH) today announced financial results for the third quarter of 2018, ending September�30, 2018.

“We are pleased with another quarter of strong performance and Non-GAAP operating earnings growth,” said Mark Pearson, President and CEO of AXA Equitable Holdings. “All of our businesses delivered double-digit operating earnings growth, reflecting the resilience of our business and its ability to generate profitable results and return cash across market cycles. Our strong operating results were supported by solid new business development and growth in assets under management.”

Mr. Pearson continued, “During the quarter, the company returned $130 million to shareholders, including our first quarterly dividend. In addition, our Board of Directors has authorized increasing our share repurchase program by an additional $300 million. We are executing on our long-term strategic priorities, and we believe the strength of our business model, product offerings and balance sheet will enable us to continue to deliver value to our clients and shareholders.”

Consolidated Results
(in millions, except per share amounts or unless otherwise noted) 3Q18 3Q17
Total Assets Under Management (“AUM”, in billions) $ 668 $ 651
Net income (loss) attributable to Holdings (496 ) 10
Net income (loss) per diluted share $ (0.89 ) $ 0.02
Non-GAAP Operating Earnings (loss) 693 400
Non-GAAP Operating Earnings (loss) per diluted share (“EPS”) $ 1.23 $ 0.71

Total AUM was $668 billion, up 3% from September 30, 2017.

Net loss in the third quarter of 2018 was $(496) million, a decrease of $506 million compared to the third quarter of 2017. This result was primarily driven by noneconomic derivative impacts under GAAP accounting for our hedging program, as well as by a $(131) million impact from our annual actuarial assumptions update.

Non-GAAP Operating Earnings in the third quarter of 2018 increased to $693 million from $400 million in the third quarter of 2017 and includes a $169 million impact from our annual actuarial assumptions update.

As of September�30, 2018, Book value per share, including accumulated other comprehensive income (“AOCI”), was $22.15. Book value per share, excluding AOCI, was $25.00 per share.

Third Quarter 2018 Highlights

Business Segment Results

Individual Retirement

(in millions, unless otherwise noted) 3Q18 3Q17
Account value (in billions) $ 105.7 $ 100.9
Segment net flows (258 ) (144 )
Operating earnings (loss) 434 326


Group Retirement

(in millions, unless otherwise noted) 3Q18 3Q17
Account value (in billions) $ 35.6 $ 32.9
Segment net flows (100 ) (4 )
Operating earnings (loss) 134 85


Investment Management and Research

(in millions, unless otherwise noted) 3Q18 3Q17
Total AUM (in billions) $ 550.4 $ 534.9
Segment net flows 1,300 4,500
Operating earnings (loss) 96 45


Protection Solutions

(in millions) 3Q18 3Q17
Gross written premiums $ 737 $ 736
Annualized premiums 56 55
Operating earnings (loss) 137 (3 )


Corporate and Other

Operating loss of $(108) million, a decrease of $55 million year-over-year, driven by lower revenues from run-off business and higher interest expense from the issuance of public debt in April.

Capital Management

AXA Equitable Holdings began executing on its capital management program in the third quarter, in-line with the Company’s long-term target of returning 40-60% of Non-GAAP Operating Earnings to shareholders on an annualized basis starting in 2018.

Holding company cash and liquid assets were above our $500 million target as of September 30, 2018.

1 This press release includes certain non-GAAP financial measures. More information on these measures and reconciliations to the most comparable U.S. GAAP measures can be found in the “Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures” section of this release.
2 Adjusted Operating Margin is a non-GAAP financial measure used by AB’s management in evaluating AB’s financial performance on a standalone basis and to compare its performance, as reported by AB in its public filings. It is not comparable to any other non-GAAP financial measure used herein.
3 Means of share purchases may include open market transactions, privately negotiated transactions (including share repurchases from AXA S.A.), forward, derivative, accelerated repurchase, or automatic share repurchase transactions, or tender offers. The $800 million share repurchase authorization expires on March 31, 2019 (unless extended), and does not obligate the company to purchase any shares. The authorization for the share repurchase program may be terminated, increased or decreased by the board of directors at any time.
4 Refers to AllianceBernstein L.P. and AllianceBernstein Holding L.P.

Earnings Conference Call

AXA Equitable Holdings will host a conference call on Tuesday, November 13, 2018, at 8:00 a.m. ET, to discuss its third quarter 2018 results. The conference call webcast, along with additional earnings materials will be accessible on the Company’s investor relations website at ir.axaequitableholdings.com. Please log on to the webcast at least 15 minutes prior to the call to download and install any necessary software. To join the conference call via telephone, please use one of the following dial-in numbers:

A webcast replay will be made available on the AXA Equitable Holdings Investor Relations website at ir.axaequitableholdings.com.

About AXA Equitable Holdings

AXA Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: EQH) is one of the leading financial services companies in the U.S. and is comprised of two complementary and well-established principal franchises, AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company and AllianceBernstein. We have been helping clients prepare for their financial future since 1859 and have a combined total of more than 12,100 employees and financial professionals, 5.3 million customer relationships and $668 billion of assets under management (as of 09/30/18).

Forward-looking and cautionary statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “expects,” “believes,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “seeks,” “aims,” “plans,” “assumes,” “estimates,” “projects,” “should,” “would,” “could,” “may,” “will,” “shall” or variations of such words are generally part of forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made based on management’s current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects upon AXA Equitable Holdings, Inc. (“Holdings”) and its consolidated subsidiaries. “We,” “us” and “our” refer to Holdings and its consolidated subsidiaries, unless the context refers only to Holdings as a corporate entity. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting Holdings will be those anticipated by management. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, all matters that are not historical facts.

These forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and there are certain important factors that could cause actual results to differ, possibly materially, from expectations or estimates reflected in such forward-looking statements, including, among others: (i) conditions in the financial markets and economy, including equity market declines and volatility, interest rate fluctuations, impacts on our goodwill and changes in liquidity and access to and cost of capital; (ii) operational factors, including reliance on the payment of dividends to Holdings by its subsidiaries, indebtedness, elements of our business strategy not being effective in accomplishing our objectives, protection of confidential customer information or proprietary business information, information systems failing or being compromised and strong industry competition; (iii) credit, counterparties and investments, including counterparty default on derivative contracts, failure of financial institutions, defaults, errors or omissions by third parties and affiliates and gross unrealized losses on fixed maturity and equity securities; (iv) our reinsurance and hedging programs; (v) our products, structure and product distribution, including variable annuity guaranteed benefits features within certain of our products, complex regulation and administration of our products, variations in statutory capital requirements, financial strength and claims-paying ratings and key product distribution relationships; (vi) estimates, assumptions and valuations, including risk management policies and procedures, potential inadequacy of reserves, actual mortality, longevity and morbidity experience differing from pricing expectations or reserves, amortization of deferred acquisition costs and financial models; (vii) our Investment Management and Research segment, including fluctuations in assets under management, the industry-wide shift from actively-managed investment services to passive services and potential termination of investment advisory agreements; (viii) legal and regulatory risks, including federal and state legislation affecting financial institutions, insurance regulation and tax reform; (ix) risks related to our controlling stockholder, including conflicts of interest, waiver of corporate opportunities and costs associated with separation and rebranding; and (x) risks related to our common stock and offerings, including obligations related to being a public company, remediation of our material weaknesses and potential stock price declines due to future sales of shares by existing stockholders.

Forward-looking statements should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements, risks, uncertainties and other factors identified in Holdings’ prospectus dated May 9, 2018, filed on May 11, 2018 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to Rule 424(b)(4) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, including in the section entitled “Risk Factors,” and elsewhere in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Further, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which the statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as otherwise may be required by law.

Use of Non-GAAP financial measures

In addition to our results presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP, we report Non-GAAP Operating Earnings, Non-GAAP Operating EPS and Book value per share, excluding AOCI, each of which is a measure that is not determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Management believes that the use of these non-GAAP financial measures, together with relevant U.S. GAAP measures, provides a better understanding of our results of operations and the underlying profitability drivers and trends of our business. These non-GAAP financial measures are intended to remove from our results of operations the impact of market changes (other than with respect to equity method investments) as well as certain other expenses which are not part of our underlying profitability drivers or likely to re-occur in the foreseeable future, as such items fluctuate from period-to-period in a manner inconsistent with these drivers. These measures should be considered supplementary to our results that are presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP and should not be viewed as a substitute for the U.S. GAAP measures. Other companies may use similarly titled non-GAAP financial measures that are calculated differently from the way we calculate such measures. Consequently, our non-GAAP financial measures may not be comparable to similar measures used by other companies.

Non-GAAP Operating Earnings

Non-GAAP Operating Earnings is an after-tax non-GAAP financial measure used to evaluate our financial performance on a consolidated basis that is determined by making certain adjustments to our consolidated after-tax net income attributable to Holdings. The most significant of such adjustments relates to our derivative positions, which protect economic value and statutory capital, and are more sensitive to changes in market conditions than the variable annuity product liabilities as valued under U.S. GAAP. This is a large source of volatility in net income.

In the first quarter of 2018, the Company revised its Non-GAAP Operating Earnings definition as it relates to the treatment of certain elements of the profitability of its variable annuity products with indexed-linked features to align to the treatment of its variable annuity products with GMxB features. In addition, adjustments for variable annuity products with index-linked features previously included within Other adjustments in the calculation of Non-GAAP Operating Earnings are now included with the adjustments for variable annuity products with GMxB features in the broader adjustment category, Variable annuity product features. The presentation of Non-GAAP Operating Earnings in prior periods was revised to reflect this change in definition.

Non-GAAP Operating Earnings equals our consolidated after-tax net income attributable to Holdings adjusted to eliminate the impact of the following items:

Because Non-GAAP Operating Earnings excludes the foregoing items that can be distortive or unpredictable, management believes that this measure enhances the understanding of the Company’s underlying drivers of profitability and trends in our business, thereby allowing management to make decisions that will positively impact our business.

We use our prevailing corporate federal income tax rate of 21% in 2018 and 35% in 2017, while taking into account any non-recurring differences for events recognized differently in our financial statements and federal income tax returns as well as partnership income taxed at lower rates when reconciling Net income (loss) attributable to Holdings to Non-GAAP Operating Earnings.

The table below presents a reconciliation of Net income (loss) attributable to Holdings to Non-GAAP Operating Earnings for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017:

Three Months Ended
September 30,
Nine Months Ended
September 30,
(in millions) 2018 2017 2018 2017
Net income (loss) attributable to Holdings $ (496 ) $ 10 $ (118 ) $ 351
Adjustments related to:
Variable annuity product features 1,403 507 1,829 738
Investment (gains) losses 36 11 (44 ) 32
Goodwill impairment 369
Net actuarial (gains) losses related to pension and other postretirement benefit obligations 24 34 182 101
Other adjustments 51 56 229 61
Income tax expense (benefit) related to above adjustments (409 ) (35 ) (461 ) (446 )
Non-recurring tax items 84 (183 ) 45 (92 )
Non-GAAP Operating Earnings $ 693 $ 400 $ 1,662 $ 1,114

Non-GAAP Operating EPS

Non-GAAP Operating EPS is calculated by dividing Non-GAAP Operating Earnings by ending diluted common shares outstanding. The table below presents a reconciliation of GAAP EPS to Non-GAAP Operating EPS for the three months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017:

Three Months Ended
September 30,
Nine Months Ended
September 30,
(per share amounts) 2018 2017 2018 2017
Net income (loss) attributable to Holdings $ (0.89 ) $ 0.02 $ (0.21 ) $ 0.63
Adjustments related to:
Variable annuity product features 2.50 0.90 3.26 1.32
Investment (gains) losses 0.06 0.02 (0.08 ) 0.06
Goodwill impairment 0.66
Net actuarial (gains) losses related to pension and other postretirement benefit obligations 0.04 0.06 0.32 0.18
Other adjustments 0.10 0.10 0.41 0.10
Income tax expense (benefit) related to above adjustments (0.73 ) (0.06 ) (0.82 ) (0.80 )
Non-recurring tax items 0.15 (0.33 ) 0.08 (0.16 )
Non-GAAP Operating Earnings $ 1.23 $ 0.71 $ 2.96 $ 1.99

Book Value Per Share, excluding AOCI

We use the term “book value” to refer to Total equity attributable to Holdings. Book Value Per Share, excluding AOCI, is our Total equity attributable to Holdings, excluding AOCI, divided by ending common shares outstanding - diluted.

September
30, 2018

December 31,
2017

Book value per share $ 22.15 $ 23.92
Per share impact of AOCI 2.85 0.20
Book Value Per Share, excluding AOCI $ 25.00 $ 24.12

Other Operating Measures

We also use certain operating measures which management believes provide useful information about our businesses and the operational factors underlying our financial performance.

Account Value

Account value generally equals the aggregate policy account value of our retirement products.

Assets Under Management (“AUM”)

AUM means investment assets that are managed by one of our subsidiaries and includes: (i) assets managed by AB, (ii) the assets in our general account investment assets portfolio and (iii) the separate account assets of our Individual Retirement, Group Retirement and Protection Solutions businesses. Total AUM reflects exclusions between segments to avoid double counting.

Conditional Tail Expectation (“CTE”) 98

CTE98 is defined as the amount of assets required to satisfy contract holder obligations across market environments in the average of the worst 2 percent of scenarios over the life of the contracts.

Consolidated Statements of Income (Loss)

Three Months Ended
September 30,
Nine Months Ended
September 30,
2018 2017 2018 2017
(in millions)
REVENUES
Policy charges and fee income $ 951 $ 953 $ 2,881 $ 2,810
Premiums 269 267 823 825
Net derivative gains (losses) (2,006 ) (316 ) (2,288 ) 232
Net investment income (loss) 681 794 1,868 2,377
Investment gains (losses), net:
Total other-than-temporary impairment losses (4 ) (1 ) (4 ) (15 )
Other investment gains (losses), net (31 ) (11 ) 49 (17 )
Total investment gains (losses), net (35 ) (12 ) 45 (32 )
Investment management and service fees 1,088 1,018 3,218 2,970
Other income 135 102 376 356
Total revenues $ 1,083 $ 2,806 $ 6,923 $ 9,538
BENEFITS AND OTHER DEDUCTIONS
Policyholders’ benefits $ 318 $ 1,077 $ 1,812 $ 3,900
Interest credited to policyholders’ account balances 278 255 817 743
Compensation and benefits (includes $42, $41, $122 and $123 of deferred policy acquisition costs, respectively) 548 524 1,726 1,609
Commissions and distribution related payments (includes $138, $121, $390 and $391 of deferred policy acquisition costs, respectively) 425 388 1,254 1,183
Interest expense 65 42 171 115
Amortization of deferred policy acquisition costs (net of capitalization of $180, $162, $512 and $514 of deferred policy acquisition costs, respectively) (363 ) 23 (338 ) (150 )
Other operating costs and expenses 430 450 1,349 1,608
Total benefits and other deductions 1,701 2,759 6,791 9,008
Income (loss) from continuing operations, before income taxes (618 ) 47 132 530
Income tax (expense) benefit 175 59 23 100
Net income (loss) (443 ) 106 155 630
Less: net (income) loss attributable to the noncontrolling interest (53 ) (96 ) (273 ) (279 )
Net income (loss) attributable to Holdings $ (496 ) $ 10 $ (118 ) $ 351

Earnings Per Share

Three Months Ended
September 30,
Nine Months Ended
September 30,
2018 2017 2018 2017
(in millions, except per

share data)

Earnings per share - Common stock:
Basic $ (0.89 ) $ 0.02 $ (0.21 ) $ 0.63
Diluted $ (0.89 ) $ 0.02 $ (0.21 ) $ 0.63
Weighted Average Shares:
Weighted average common stock outstanding for basic earnings per common share 560.3 561.0 560.8 561.0
Weighted average common stock outstanding for diluted earnings per common share 560.3 561.0 560.8 561.0

Results of Operations by Segment

Three Months Ended
September 30,
Nine Months Ended
September 30,
2018 2017 2018 2017
(in millions)
Operating earnings (loss) by segment:
Individual Retirement $ 434 $ 326 $ 1,207 $ 844
Group Retirement 134 85 287 193
Investment Management and Research 96 45 274 138
Protection Solutions 137 (3 ) 160 54
Corporate and Other (108 ) (53 ) (266 ) (115 )
Non-GAAP Operating Earnings $ 693 $ 400 $ 1,662 $ 1,114

Select Balance Sheet Statistics

September 30,
2018
December 31,
2017
(in millions)
ASSETS
Total investments and cash and cash equivalents $ 83,719 $ 86,596
Separate accounts assets 125,989 124,552
Total assets 234,451 235,615
LIABILITIES
Short-term and Long-term debt $ 4,806 $ 2,408
Future policy benefits and other policyholders’ liabilities 29,504 30,330
Policyholders’ account balances 50,066 47,171
Total liabilities 220,437 218,471
EQUITY
Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) (1,595 ) (108 )
Total equity attributable to Holdings $ 12,411 $ 13,421
Total equity attributable to Holdings excluding Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) 14,006 13,529

Assets Under Management

September 30,
2018
December 31,
2017
(in millions)

Assets under management

AB AUM: $ 550,400 $ 554,485
Exclusion for General Account and Other (58,339 ) (59,669 )
Exclusion for Separate Accounts (33,968 ) (33,748 )
AB Third Party $ 458,093 $ 461,068
Total Company AUM
AB Third Party $ 458,093 $ 461,068
General Account and Other(1) 83,719 86,596
Separate Accounts(2) 125,989 124,552
Total AUM $ 667,801 $ 672,216
(1) “General Account and Other Affiliated Accounts” refers to assets held in the general accounts of our insurance companies and other assets on which we bear the investment risk.
(2) “Separate Accounts” refers to the separate account investment assets of our insurance subsidiaries excluding any assets on which we bear the investment risk.

Investor Relations

Kevin Molloy

+1 212-314-2476



Media Relations

Gina Tyler

+1 212-314-2010

Source: EQH Investor Relations

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