Q1 net income increased 329% year-over-year to $373 million

Q1 operating income, net of tax, increased 70% year-over-year to $258 million

Q1 ROE of 20.6%, Q1 Retirement Services operating ROE ex. AOCI of 22.8%

Q1 new deposits up 22% year-over-year to $1.9 billion

Q1 Retirement Services investment margin of 2.85%, up 22 basis points year-over-year

PEMBROKE, Bermuda - May 10, 2017 - Athene Holding Ltd. ("Athene") (NYSE: ATH), a leading provider of retirement savings products, today announced financial results for the first quarter 2017.

Net income for the first quarter 2017 was $373 million, or $1.87 per diluted Class A share ("diluted share"), compared to net income in the first quarter 2016 of $87 million, or $0.47 per diluted share.

Operating income, net of tax for the first quarter 2017 was $258 million, or $1.32 per operating diluted Class A share ("operating diluted share"), compared to operating income, net of tax for the first quarter 2016 of $152 million, or $0.82 per operating diluted share.

“Our first quarter results reflect a very strong start to the year," said Jim Belardi, CEO of Athene. "Significant liability growth combined with investment margin expansion drove a large increase in operating income, net income and shareholders' equity. With respect to our financial strength, we continue to have high risk-based capital ratios, more than $1.5 billion of excess equity capital and no financial leverage."

Other Highlights¹ 

¹ This news release references certain Non-GAAP measures. See Non-GAAP Measures for additional discussion.

² ALRe RBC ratio, which is used in evaluating our capital position and the amount of capital needed to support our segment, is calculated by applying the NAIC RBC factors to the Statutory Financial Statements of ALRe.

³ Effective January 1, 2016, in connection with the implementation of its broader regulatory regime, the BMA integrated the EBS framework into the determination of BSCR. The European Commission has granted the BMA's regulatory regime for reinsurance, group solvency calculation and group supervision full equivalence to Solvency II. Under the EBS framework, ALRe's assets are recorded at market value and its insurance reserves are determined by reference to nine prescribed scenarios, with the scenario resulting in the highest reserve balance required to be selected. This ratio is not comparable to prior year end BSCR ratios given the change in the solvency regime; however, consistent with the previous regime the minimum required capital ratio to be considered solvent by the BMA is 100%.

⁴ Rankings as of December 31, 2016 per LIMRA.

First Quarter Results

Net income for the first quarter increased by $286 million, or 329%, over the prior year. The increase was driven by a $106 million increase in operating income, net of tax, a $163 million favorable change in FIA derivatives primarily due to equity market performance and the favorable change in discount rates compared to the prior year, as well as $76 million of favorable investment gains primarily driven by credit spreads tightening.

Operating income, net of tax for the first quarter increased by $106 million, or 70%, over the prior year. The increase was driven by higher fixed, other and alternative investment income as well as favorable rider reserve changes and DAC amortization.

In the first quarter of 2017, we generated retail sales, new flow reinsurance and funding agreement deposits of $1.9 billion, an increase of 22% compared to the prior year.

Retail Sales: Athene ranked as the #2 writer of fixed indexed annuities for the second half of 2016, based on LIMRA data as of December 31, 2016. For the first quarter, we generated new deposits of $1.1 billion, an increase of 66% over the prior year. During the quarter, we launched new products, expanded our distribution and added new partners, which drove strong growth over the prior year.    

Flow Reinsurance: Flow reinsurance deposits were $166 million in the first quarter, down from the prior year due in part to a decline in the overall fixed-rate deferred annuity market, which is largely comprised of MYGA products. We are pursuing new reinsurance partners and developing new products to diversify our portfolio.

Institutional: For the first quarter, funding agreements contributed $650 million of new deposits within our institutional channel; we did not issue any funding agreements in the prior year. Additionally, in the second quarter of 2017 to date, we have issued more than $1 billion of funding agreements, and we expect demand will continue for this product.

Selected Results

¹Book value per share, ex AOCI is calculated as the ending AHL shareholders' equity excluding AOCI divided by the operating diluted Class A common shares outstanding.

²Represents common shares outstanding for all classes eligible to participate in dividends for each period presented. Utilized for the book value per share calculation.

³Operating diluted Class A common shares outstanding assumes conversion or settlement of all outstanding items that are able to be converted to or settled in Class A common shares, including the impacts of Class B common shares outstanding on a one-for-one basis, the impacts of all Class M common shares outstanding net of the conversion price and any other stock-based awards outstanding. Our Class B common shares are economically equivalent to Class A common shares and can be converted to Class A common shares on a 1-for-1 basis at any time. Our Class M common shares are in the legal form of shares but economically function as options as they are convertible into Class A shares after vesting and settlement of the conversion price. We believe this non-GAAP measure is an appropriate economic representation of our share counts for use in an economic view of book value metrics.

¹ Basic earnings per share, including basic weighted average shares outstanding includes all classes eligible to participate in dividends for each period presented.  

² Diluted earnings per share on a GAAP basis for Class A common shares, including diluted Class A weighted average shares outstanding, includes the dilutive impacts, if any, of Class B common shares, Class M common shares and any other stock-based awards, which totaled 3.1 million weighted average shares in the quarter. Diluted earnings per share on a GAAP basis for Class A common shares are based on allocated net income of $152 million (41% of net income) and $23 million (27% of net income) for the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

³ Weighted average shares outstanding - operating diluted Class A assumes conversion or settlement of all outstanding items that are able to be converted to or settled in Class A common shares, including the impacts of Class B common shares on a one-for-one basis, the impacts of all Class M common shares net of the conversion price and any other stock-based awards. Our Class B common shares are economically equivalent to Class A common shares and can be converted to Class A common shares on a 1-for-1 basis at any time. Our Class M common shares are in the legal form of shares but economically function as options as they are convertible into Class A shares after vesting and settlement of the conversion price. In calculating Class A diluted earnings per share on a GAAP basis, we are required to apply sequencing rules to determine the dilutive impacts, if any, of our Class B common shares, Class M common shares and any other stock-based awards. To the extent our Class B common shares, Class M common shares and/or any other stock-based awards are not dilutive they are excluded. We believe this non-GAAP measure is an appropriate economic representation of our share counts for use in an economic view of diluted operating earnings per share.

Q1 Results

In the first quarter, our Retirement Services segment generated an operating ROE excluding AOCI of 22.8% and operating income, net of tax of $267 million, an increase of $70 million over the prior year. Operating income, net of tax was driven by strong fixed, other and alternative investment income as well as favorable rider reserve changes and DAC amortization.

Higher investment income was driven mainly by earnings from growth in invested assets of $5.8 billion, proceeds of $14 million from a bond previously written down, higher interest rates and strength in the alternatives portfolio. In 2016, fixed income and other investment income benefited from $45 million of bond call income from a large redemption partially offset by lower alternative investment income driven by lower credit fund income due to credit spreads widening. Cost of crediting increased $20 million, primarily driven by growth in the block of business partially offset by recent rate actions and lower option costs.  Other liability costs were in line with the prior year having benefited from approximately $40 million of rider reserve changes and favorable DAC amortization driven by strong equity market performance in 2017 compared to 2016, offset by growth in the block of business.

Investment margin on deferred annuities was 2.85%, an increase of 22 basis points over the prior year, which includes 9 basis points from the proceeds on a bond previously written down, as compared to 30 basis points in the prior year of bond call income from a large redemption. The net investment earned rate was 4.76%, an increase of

17 basis points over the prior year.  Cost of crediting decreased by 5 basis points compared to the prior year due to recent rate actions and lower option costs.

Q1 Results

For the first quarter of 2017, Corporate and Other operating loss, net of tax was $9 million, as compared to a loss of $45 million in the prior year. The improvement was largely driven by higher alternative investment income, partially offset by an $11 million unfavorable change in fair value within one of our funds in 2017.  Additionally, in 2016 we had lower credit fund income due to credit spreads widening and a decline in the market value of public equity positions in one of our funds. For the first quarter, results for our German business were in line with the prior year.

This press release and the first quarter 2017 financial supplement will be posted to the Company’s website at ir.athene.com.

Athene will conduct a conference call on Thursday, May 11, 2017 at 9:00 a.m. ET to discuss first quarter 2017 results. Additionally, the company will post an earnings presentation deck on the ir.athene.com website prior to market open on May 11, 2017.

Investor Relations Contact:             Media Contact:

phart@athene.com                    klynn@athene.com

• Retail fixed and fixed indexed annuity products;

• Reinsurance arrangements with third-party annuity providers; and

• Institutional products, such as funding agreements.

Further information about our companies can be found at www.athene.com.

In addition to our results presented in accordance with GAAP, our results of operations include certain non-GAAP measures commonly used in our industry. Management believes the use of these non-GAAP measures, together with the relevant GAAP measures, provides a better understanding of our results of operations and the underlying profitability drivers of our business. The majority of these non-GAAP measures are intended to remove from the results of operations the impact of market volatility (other than with respect to alternative investments) as well as integration, restructuring and 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 in accordance with GAAP and should not be viewed as a substitute for the GAAP measures. See Non-GAAP Measure Reconciliations for the appropriate reconciliations to the GAAP measures.

Investment margin is a key measurement of the financial health of our Retirement Services core deferred annuities. Investment margin on our deferred annuities is generated from the excess of our net investment earned rate over the cost of crediting to our policyholders. Net investment earned rate is a key measure of investment returns and cost of crediting is a key measure of the policyholder benefits on our deferred annuities. Net investment earned rate, cost of crediting and investment margin on deferred annuities are non-GAAP measures we use to evaluate the profitability of our core deferred annuities business. We believe measures like net investment earned rate, cost of crediting and investment margin on deferred annuities are effective in analyzing the trends of our core business operations, profitability and pricing discipline. While we believe net investment earned rate, cost of crediting and investment margin on deferred annuities are meaningful financial metrics and enhance our understanding of the underlying profitability drivers of our business, they should not be used as a substitute for net investment income and interest sensitive contract benefits presented under GAAP.

In managing our business we analyze invested assets, which do not correspond to total investments, including investments in related parties, as disclosed in our consolidated financial statements and notes thereto. Invested

Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (unaudited)

Condensed Consolidated Statement of Income (unaudited)

The reconciliation of basic weighted average Class A shares to weighted average operating diluted Class A shares is as follows:

The reconciliation of basic Class A shares outstanding to operating diluted Class A outstanding shares is as follows: