-- Free shares attribution plan to all AXA employees as part of the company wide project Ambition 2012, PARIS, May 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- During AXA's annual shareholders' meeting held today, all resolutions submitted for voting were approved, especially that of allowing the Management Board to distribute free AXA shares to all AXA employees as part of the > program representing up to 0.7% of AXA's share capital (or around 14 millions shares based on AXA's current share capital). AXA Miles is one of several key human resources initiatives of AXA's company wide project "Ambition 2012" which aims for the company to become the preferred company in its industry by 2012 of its clients, shareholders and employees. The success of Ambition 2012 will be determined through motivated and engaged teams which should lead the Group to doubling its size in terms of revenues and tripling its underlying earnings per share between 2004 and 2012. Henri de Castries has expressed his willingness to have each and every employee participate in AXA Group's success: "The key to the success of Ambition 2012 resides in the engagement of each employee, and if efforts are shared, so must its success." Each AXA employee around the world shall be allocated 50 free AXA shares by the end of 2007 to thank them for their efforts for the first two years of the Ambition 2012 plan. In 2009, provided the Group is still in line with its initial plan*, the Management Board will allocate 50 additional shares to each AXA employee. Employees will actually receive the shares in 2011 for the first allocation of 50 shares and in 2013 for the second allocation of 50 shares. The integration of the Winterthur Group acquired in 2006 increased the number of AXA employees to around 120,000 worldwide. The Shareholders' meeting also approved the appointment of Jean-Marie Folz and of Giuseppe Mussari as new directors to AXA's Supervisory Board. Jean-Martin Folz is appointed for four years in replacement of Mr. Henri Hottinguer whose mandate expired today. Jean-Martin Folz, former CEO of the PSA Peugeot Citroen group from October 1997 to February 2007, is a fellow of the Ecole Polytechnique and holds a degree in Engineering. He began his career working for French government agencies before holding executive positions in various companies such as Pechiney, Carbonne Lorraine and Beghin Say. As previously announced in the agreement between AXA and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Sienna (BMPS) on March 23, 2007 Giuseppe Mussari, CEO and Chairman of the Board of BMPS since April 2006, joins AXA's Supervisory Board in replacement of Mr. David Dautresme, whose mandate expired today. Mr. Mussari holds a law degree from the University of Sienna and has been a member of the Sienna bar since 1993. He was Vice-President and then President of the Criminal Court of Sienna before becoming Chairman of the Italian banking foundation "Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena" from 2001 to 2006. About AXA: AXA Group is a global leader in Financial Protection. AXA's operations are diverse geographically, with major operations in Europe, North America and the Asia/Pacific area. AXA had Euro 1,315 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2006. For full year 2006, IFRS revenues amounted to Euro 79 billion, IFRS underlying earnings amounted to Euro 4,010 million and IFRS adjusted earnings to Euro 5,140 million. In 1Q07, IFRS revenues amounted to Euro 29 billion. The AXA ordinary share is listed and trades under the symbol AXA on the Paris Stock Exchange. The AXA American Depository Share is also listed on the NYSE under the ticker symbol AXA. * In line with the Ambition 2012 project "Becoming the Preferred Company" will be measured by two criteria: operating earnings per share net of interests charges on TSS and TSDI of Euro 2.41 per share and an index (satisfied customers - unsatisfied customers) of customer satisfaction of 82 in 2008 - For reference, this index stood at 79 in 2006. DATASOURCE: AXA CONTACT: Investor Relations, Etienne Bouas-Laurent, +33-1-40-75-46-85, or Paul-Antoine Cristofari, +33-1-40-75-73-60, or Emmanuel Touzeau, +33-1-40-75-49-05, or Kevin Molloy, +1-212-314-2893; or Media Relations, Christophe Dufraux, +33-1-40-75-46-74, or Clara Rodrigo, +33-1-40-75-47-22, or Armelle Vercken, +33-1-40-75-46-42, or Mary Taylor, +1-212-314-5845, all of AXA Web site: http://www.axa.com/

Copyright