Aegon to repurchase shares to neutralize impact of 2020 final stock dividend and share-based variable compensation plans
July 07 2021 - 12:00PM
Business Wire
Aegon announced today that it will repurchase common shares for
an amount of EUR 133 million to neutralize the dilutive effect of
both its 2020 final stock dividend and certain share-based variable
compensation plans for senior management.
Shareholders were given the opportunity to choose between
receiving the 2020 final dividend of EUR 0.06 per common share in
cash or in stock. 58% of shareholders elected to receive the final
dividend in stock. To neutralize the dilutive effect of the 2020
final stock dividend, Aegon will repurchase shares for an amount of
EUR 72 million. These shares will be held as treasury shares and
will be used to pay future stock dividends.
Aegon will also repurchase common shares for an amount of EUR 61
million in the context of share-based variable compensation plans
for the years 2017-2021. This will be done to neutralize the
dilutive effect of the shares already vested and those to be vested
in the future for these plans. The repurchased shares will be held
as treasury shares until allocation to the plan participants.
The repurchase of shares will commence on July 8, 2021 and is
expected to be completed on or before August 25, 2021. Aegon will
engage a third party to execute the transactions on its behalf. The
common shares will be repurchased at a maximum of the average of
the daily volume-weighted average prices during the repurchase
period.
Weekly updates regarding the transactions will be available on
aegon.com.
About Aegon
Aegon’s roots go back more than 175
years – to the first half of the nineteenth century. Since then,
Aegon has grown into an international company, with businesses in
more than 20 countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Today,
Aegon is one of the world’s leading financial services
organizations, providing life insurance, pensions and asset
management. Aegon’s purpose is to help people achieve a lifetime of
financial security. More information on aegon.com.
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, could, is confident, will, and similar
expressions as they relate to Aegon. These statements are not
guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties
and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Aegon undertakes 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 and/or governmental 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 Aegon’s fixed income investment portfolios;
– 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 Aegon
holds; and
– The effects of declining creditworthiness
of certain public sector securities and the resulting decline in
the value of government exposure that Aegon holds;
- Changes in the performance of Aegon’s investment portfolio and
decline in ratings of Aegon’s counterparties;
- Lowering of one or more of Aegon’s debt ratings issued by
recognized rating organizations and the adverse impact such action
may have on Aegon’s ability to raise capital and on its liquidity
and financial condition;
- Lowering of one or more of insurer financial strength ratings
of Aegon’s insurance subsidiaries and the adverse impact such
action may have on the written premium, policy retention,
profitability and liquidity of its insurance subsidiaries;
- The effect of the European Union’s Solvency II requirements and
other regulations in other jurisdictions affecting the capital
Aegon is required to maintain;
- 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;
- Changes in the availability of, and costs associated with,
liquidity sources such as bank and capital markets funding, as well
as conditions in the credit markets in general such as changes in
borrower and counterparty creditworthiness;
- Increasing levels of competition in the United States, the
Netherlands, the United Kingdom and emerging markets;
- Catastrophic events, either manmade or by nature, including by
way of example acts of God, acts of terrorism, acts of war and
pandemics, could result in material losses and significantly
interrupt Aegon’s business;
- The frequency and severity of insured loss events;
- Changes affecting longevity, mortality, morbidity, persistence
and other factors that may impact the profitability of Aegon’s
insurance products;
- Aegon’s projected results are highly sensitive to complex
mathematical models of financial markets, mortality, longevity, and
other dynamic systems subject to shocks and unpredictable
volatility. Should assumptions to these models later prove
incorrect, or should errors in those models escape the controls in
place to detect them, future performance will vary from projected
results;
- Reinsurers to whom Aegon has ceded significant underwriting
risks may fail to meet their obligations;
- Changes in customer behavior and public opinion in general
related to, among other things, the type of products Aegon sells,
including legal, regulatory or commercial necessity to meet
changing customer expectations;
- Customer responsiveness to both new products and distribution
channels;
- As Aegon’s operations support complex transactions and are
highly dependent on the proper functioning of information
technology, operational risks such as system disruptions or
failures, security or data privacy breaches, cyberattacks, human
error, failure to safeguard personally identifiable information,
changes in operational practices or inadequate controls including
with respect to third parties with which we do business may disrupt
Aegon’s business, damage its reputation and adversely affect its
results of operations, financial condition and cash flows;
- The impact of acquisitions and divestitures, restructurings,
product withdrawals and other unusual items, including Aegon’s
ability to integrate acquisitions and to obtain the anticipated
results and synergies from acquisitions;
- Aegon’s failure to achieve anticipated levels of earnings or
operational efficiencies, as well as other management initiatives
related to cost savings, cash capital at Holding, gross financial
leverage and free cash flow;
- Changes in the policies of central banks and/or
governments;
- Litigation or regulatory action that could require Aegon to pay
significant damages or change the way Aegon does business;
- Competitive, legal, regulatory, or tax changes that affect
profitability, the distribution cost of or demand for Aegon’s
products;
- Consequences of an actual or potential break-up of the European
monetary union in whole or in part, or the exit of the United
Kingdom from the European Union and potential consequences if other
European Union countries leave the European Union;
- Changes in laws and regulations, particularly those affecting
Aegon’s operations’ ability to hire and retain key personnel,
taxation of Aegon companies, the products Aegon sells, and the
attractiveness of certain products to its consumers;
- Regulatory changes relating to the pensions, investment, and
insurance industries in the jurisdictions in which Aegon
operates;
- Standard setting initiatives of supranational standard setting
bodies such as the Financial Stability Board and the International
Association of Insurance Supervisors or changes to such standards
that may have an impact on regional (such as EU), national or US
federal or state level financial regulation or the application
thereof to Aegon, including the designation of Aegon by the
Financial Stability Board as a Global Systemically Important
Insurer (G-SII); and
- Changes in accounting regulations and policies or a change by
Aegon in applying such regulations and policies, voluntarily or
otherwise, which may affect Aegon’s reported results, shareholders’
equity or regulatory capital adequacy levels.
This document contains information that qualifies, or may
qualify, as inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1)
of the EU Market Abuse Regulation (596/2014). Further details of
potential risks and uncertainties affecting Aegon are described in
its filings with the Netherlands Authority for the Financial
Markets and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, including
the Annual Report. These forward-looking statements speak only as
of the date of this document. Except as required by any applicable
law or regulation, Aegon 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 Aegon’s expectations with regard thereto or any change in
events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is
based.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210707005730/en/
Media relations Dick Schiethart +31(0) 70 344 8821
dick.schiethart@aegon.com
Investor relations Jan Willem Weidema +31(0) 70 344 8028
janwillem.weidema@aegon.com
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