AEGON Completes Repayment to Dutch State

By Aegon N.v., PRNE
Tuesday, June 14, 2011

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands, June 15, 2011 -


 

  • Final payment to the Dutch State amounts to EUR 1.125 billion:
    • EUR 750 million for repurchase of 187.5 million convertible
      core capital securities
    • EUR 375 million premium

 

AEGON today fulfils its key objective of repurchasing all of the
EUR 3 billion core capital securities issued to the Dutch State at
the height of the financial crisis in 2008. The Dutch Central Bank
(DNB) has given its consent to AEGON’s repurchase of EUR 750
million
of core capital.

The total amount AEGON has paid to the Dutch State amounts to
EUR 4.1 billion. Of this amount, EUR 3 billion covered the original
issue of core capital securities, while an additional EUR 1.1
billion
was paid in premium and interest. With the repayment
completed, the company will now focus on carrying out its strategy
to deliver sustainable earnings growth with an improved risk-return
profile.

“AEGON has turned a decisive corner and is today a significantly
transformed company,” said CEO Alex Wynaendts. “Over the past three
years, we have implemented a broad range of strategic actions to
create a more focused, cost and capital efficient organization,
with a strong balance sheet and a substantially reduced risk
profile. In addition, we have divested or put into run-off a number
of businesses that did not meet our risk/return profile and which
we concluded would not contribute to AEGON’s growth prospects. We
are now in a much better position to continue to put AEGON’s
considerable expertise and resources to work for our 40 million
customers in Europe, the Americas and Asia.

“It has been our top priority to complete the repurchase of the
capital securities issued to the Dutch State at the earliest
opportunity. We are grateful to the Ministry of Finance and Dutch
Central Bank for their support during the period of extreme
economic turmoil and uncertainty that AEGON faced and successfully
weathered. We are also grateful to our business partners and many
customers for their continued confidence in AEGON. With the
repayment to the Dutch State now completed, we have set our sights
toward capturing the substantial opportunities for our core
business of life insurance, pension and retirement services and
asset management.”

About AEGON

As an international life insurance, pension and asset management
company based in The Hague, AEGON has businesses in over twenty
markets in the Americas, Europe and Asia. AEGON companies employ
approximately 27,000 people and have some 40 million customers
across the globe.

                                         Full year
    Key figures - EUR        Q1 2011          2010
    Underlying earnings
    before tax           414 million   1.8 billion
    New life sales       501 million   2.1 billion
    Gross deposits       7.4 billion    33 billion
    Revenue-generating
    investments (end of
    period)              400 billion   413 billion

Forward-looking statements

The statements contained in this document that are not
historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the
US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The following
are words that identify such forward-looking statements: aim,
believe, estimate, target, intend, may, expect, anticipate,
predict, project, counting on, plan, continue, want, forecast,
goal, should, would, is confident, will, and similar expressions as
they relate to our company. These statements are not guarantees of
future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions
that are difficult to predict. We undertake no obligation to
publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. Readers
are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking
statements, which merely reflect company expectations at the time
of writing. Actual results may differ materially from expectations
conveyed in forward-looking statements due to changes caused by
various risks and uncertainties. Such risks and uncertainties
include but are not limited to the following:

  • Changes in general economic conditions, particularly in the
    United States
    , the Netherlands and the United Kingdom;
  • Changes in the performance of financial markets, including
    emerging markets, such as with regard to:

    • The frequency and severity of defaults by issuers in our
      fixed income investment portfolios; and
    • The effects of corporate bankruptcies and/or accounting
      restatements on the financial markets and the resulting decline in
      the value of equity and debt securities we hold;
  • The frequency and severity of insured loss events;
  • Changes affecting mortality, morbidity, persistence and other
    factors that may impact the profitability of our insurance
    products;
  • Changes affecting interest rate levels and continuing low or
    rapidly changing interest rate levels;
  • Changes affecting currency exchange rates, in particular the
    EUR/USD and EUR/GBP exchange rates;
  • Increasing levels of competition in the United States, the
    Netherlands
    , the United Kingdom and emerging markets;
  • Changes in laws and regulations, particularly those affecting
    our operations, the products we sell, and the attractiveness of
    certain products to our consumers;
  • Regulatory changes relating to the insurance industry in the
    jurisdictions in which we operate;
  • Acts of God, acts of terrorism, acts of war and pandemics;
  • Changes in the policies of central banks and/or
    governments;
  • Lowering of one or more of our debt ratings issued by
    recognized rating organizations and the adverse impact such action
    may have on our ability to raise capital and on our liquidity and
    financial condition;
  • Lowering of one or more of insurer financial strength ratings
    of our insurance subsidiaries and the adverse impact such action
    may have on the premium writings, policy retention, profitability
    of its insurance subsidiaries and liquidity;
  • The effect of the European Union’s Solvency II requirements and
    other regulations in other jurisdictions affecting the capital we
    are required to maintain;
  • Litigation or regulatory action that could require us to pay
    significant damages or change the way we do business;
  • Customer responsiveness to both new products and distribution
    channels;
  • Competitive, legal, regulatory, or tax changes that affect the
    distribution cost of or demand for our products;
  • The impact of acquisitions and divestitures, restructurings,
    product withdrawals and other unusual items, including our ability
    to integrate acquisitions and to obtain the anticipated results and
    synergies from acquisitions;
  • Our failure to achieve anticipated levels of earnings or
    operational efficiencies as well as other cost saving
    initiatives;
  • The non-fulfillment of the conditions precedent underlying the
    agreement to divest Transamerica Reinsurance.

 

Further details of potential risks and uncertainties affecting the
company are described in the company’s filings with Euronext
Amsterdam and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, including
the Annual Report on Form 20-F. These forward-looking statements
speak only as of the date of this document. Except as required by
any applicable law or regulation, the company expressly disclaims
any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or
revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to
reflect any change in the company’s expectations with regard
thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on
which any such statement is based.

Contact information

Media relations:
Greg Tucker
+31(0)70 344 8956
gcc-ir@aegon.com

Investor relations:
Willem van den Berg
+31 (0)70 344 8305
877-548-9668 - toll free USA only
ir@aegon.com

www.aegon.com

 

.

YOUR VIEW POINT
NAME : (REQUIRED)
MAIL : (REQUIRED)
will not be displayed
WEBSITE : (OPTIONAL)
YOUR
COMMENT :