Aflac Announces Expanded Partnership With NXT Capital

COLUMBUS, Ga., Jan. 29, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Aflac Incorporated (NYSE: AFL) announced today that it has expanded its relationship with NXT Capital to include management of a portfolio of commercial real estate mortgage loans. Aflac Global Investments, the asset management subsidiary of Aflac Incorporated, has committed to fund a portfolio of up to $2.0 billion of floating-rate, first mortgage loans for institutional quality, middle market commercial properties throughout the U.S. on behalf of Aflac's general account, including purchasing approximately $1.1 billion of these loans from NXT.

Aflac has also increased its minority equity investment in NXT by approximately $75 million to strengthen a partnership that began nearly a year ago with an agreement to manage a portfolio of middle market corporate loans. Today's announcement reinforces Aflac's and NXT's mutual commitment to cultivating a long-term relationship and the enduring benefits of partnering together in two important private market asset classes.

Aflac Executive Vice President and Global Chief Investment Officer Eric M. Kirsch commented: "We are pleased to expand our relationship with NXT Capital following the success of our middle market lending program of last year. With this new agreement, NXT will play a key role in managing two floating-rate asset classes that are strategically important to Aflac and our hedged U.S. dollar program for Aflac Japan."

Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Aflac Incorporated Frederick J. Crawford added: "Expanding the NXT partnership further solidifies the actions of the global investment platform to find assets generating attractive risk-adjusted net investment income. NXT has proven to be an excellent strategic partner, and we are excited to strengthen our relationship with a leader across both the corporate and real estate middle market lending markets."

"NXT Capital is very pleased to further expand our strategic partnership with Aflac which, in addition to middle-market corporate loans, will now include access to our well-established commercial real estate lending platform," said Robert Radway, NXT Capital's Chairman and CEO. "We appreciate Aflac's recognition of NXT's expertise as an asset manager, our proven, broad-based direct origination capability and rigorous underwriting process for proprietary middle market corporate and commercial real estate loans."

About Aflac
When a policyholder gets sick or hurt, Aflac pays cash benefits fast. For more than six decades, Aflac insurance policies have given policyholders the opportunity to focus on recovery, not financial stress. In the United States, Aflac is the leader in voluntary insurance sales at the worksite. Through its trailblazing One Day Pay^SM initiative, Aflac U.S. can receive, process, approve and disburse payment for eligible claims in one business day. In Japan, Aflac is the leading provider of medical and cancer insurance and insures 1 in 4 households. Aflac insurance products help provide protection to more than 50 million people worldwide. For 11 consecutive years, Aflac has been recognized by Ethisphere as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies. In 2017, Fortune magazine recognized Aflac as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work for in America for the 19th consecutive year and in 2018 included Aflac on its list of Most Admired Companies for the 17th time. Aflac Incorporated is a Fortune 500 company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AFL. To find out more about Aflac and One Day Pay^SM, visit aflac.com or aflac.com/espanol.

About Aflac Global Investments
Aflac Global Investments is the asset management division of Aflac Incorporated, with offices in New York and Tokyo and more than 100 professionals managing in excess of $110 billion on behalf of the general account of Aflac Japan and Aflac U.S.

About NXT Capital
NXT Capital is a leading provider of structured financing to the U.S. middle market. Since its formation in 2010, the company has originated over $18 billion in total financing volume spread over 600+ transactions. With approximately $11.4 billion of committed capital at its disposal, NXT provides a full range of structured financing solutions on a direct basis through its Corporate Finance and Real Estate Finance groups.  NXT manages capital for third parties through its  asset management platform and offers investors proprietary access to primarily first lien senior secured loans that are not broadly traded or otherwise generally available without a loan origination platform. Investment offerings include levered and unlevered funds, separately managed accounts and CLOs.  NXT's investor base includes public and private pension plans, insurance companies, endowments, foundations and other institutional investors. NXT Capital Investment Advisers, LLC, a subsidiary of NXT Capital LLC, is registered with the SEC as an Investment Adviser.

Analyst and investor contact – David A. Young, 706.596.3264 or 800.235.2667;
FAX: 706.324.6330 or dyoung@aflac.com

Media contact – Catherine H. Blades, 706.596.3014; FAX: 706.320.2288 or cblades@aflac.com

Forward-looking Information
The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" to encourage companies to provide prospective information, so long as those informational statements are identified as forward-looking and are accompanied by meaningful cautionary statements identifying important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those included in the forward-looking statements. The company desires to take advantage of these provisions. This report contains cautionary statements identifying important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected herein, and in any other statements made by company officials in communications with the financial community and contained in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Forward-looking statements are not based on historical information and relate to future operations, strategies, financial results or other developments. Furthermore, forward-looking information is subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties. In particular, statements containing words such as "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "goal," "objective," "may," "should," "estimate," "intends," "projects," "will," "assumes," "potential," "target", "outlook" or similar words as well as specific projections of future results, generally qualify as forward-looking. Aflac undertakes no obligation to update such forward-looking statements.

The company cautions readers that the following factors, in addition to other factors mentioned from time to time, could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements: difficult conditions in global capital markets and the economy; exposure to significant interest rate risk; concentration of business in Japan; foreign currency fluctuations in the yen/dollar exchange rate; failure to execute or implement the conversion of the Japan branch to a legal subsidiary; limited availability of acceptable yen-denominated investments; deviations in actual experience from pricing and reserving assumptions; ability to continue to develop and implement improvements in information technology systems; governmental actions for the purpose of stabilizing the financial markets; interruption in telecommunication, information technology and other operational systems, or a failure to maintain the security, confidentiality or privacy of sensitive data residing on such systems; ongoing changes in the Company's industry; failure to comply with restrictions on patient privacy and information security; extensive regulation and changes in law or regulation by governmental authorities; defaults and credit downgrades of investments; ability to attract and retain qualified sales associates and employees; decline in creditworthiness of other financial institutions; subsidiaries' ability to pay dividends to Aflac Incorporated; decreases in the Company's financial strength or debt ratings; inherent limitations to risk management policies and procedures; concentration of the Company's investments in any particular single-issuer or sector; differing judgments applied to investment valuations; ability to effectively manage key executive succession; significant valuation judgments in determination of amount of impairments taken on the Company's investments; catastrophic events including, but not necessarily limited to, epidemics, pandemics, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, war or other military action, terrorism or other acts of violence, and damage incidental to such events; changes in U.S. and/or Japanese accounting standards; loss of consumer trust resulting from events external to the Company's operations; increased expenses and reduced profitability resulting from changes in assumptions for pension and other postretirement benefit plans; level and outcome of litigation; and failure of internal controls or corporate governance policies and procedures.

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SOURCE Aflac Incorporated