Ageas announces today that, based on the shareholder authorisation granted at the end of April 2014, the Board of Directors has decided to initiate a new share buy-back programme of its outstanding common stock for an amount of  EUR 250 million1/2 .

The share buy-back programme will be started by Ageas on 11 August 2014 and will run up to 31 July 2015.

This programme will be implemented in accordance with industry best practices and in compliance with the applicable buy-back rules and regulations. To this end, Ageas has mandated an independent broker to execute the programme through open market purchases on its behalf on NYSE Euronext Brussels.

The bought back shares will be held as treasury shares until such time a decision to cancel these securities is formally approved by the shareholders. The share buy-back will not affect the solvency position of the insurance operations.

Ageas will keep the market fully informed of the progress of the transaction in line with applicable regulations.

Ageas is an international insurance group with a heritage spanning 190 years. Ranked among the top 20 insurance companies in Europe, Ageas has chosen to concentrate its business activities in Europe and Asia, which together make up the largest share of the global insurance market. These are grouped around four segments: Belgium, United Kingdom, Continental Europe and Asia and served through a combination of wholly owned subsidiaries and partnerships with strong financial institutions and key distributors around the world. Ageas operates successful partnerships in Belgium, the UK, Luxembourg, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, China, Malaysia, India and Thailand and has subsidiaries in France, Hong Kong and the UK. Ageas is the market leader in Belgium for individual life and employee benefits, as well as a leading Non-Life player through AG Insurance. In the UK, Ageas is the sixth largest Non-Life insurer with a number 2 position in cars insured and has a strong presence in the over 50's market. Ageas employs more than 13,000 people in the consolidated entities and over 30,000 in the non-consolidated partnerships, and has annual inflows of more than EUR 23 billion.

1 Currently, Ageas owns approximately 3.63% of its own shares (mainly shares related to the Floating Rate Equity-linked Subordinated Hybrids (FRESH) and shares to be cancelled, stemming from the previous buy-back programme). The maximum buy-back of 10% of issued share capital authorised by the shareholders will not be exceeded.
2 Ageas has informed the National Bank that this operation can be considered as non-strategic, according to article 36/3 §2 of the law of 22 February 1998 determining the statute of the National Bank of Belgium.


Pdf version press release:
http://hugin.info/134212/R/1846685/643864.pdf



This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients.
The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.
Source: Ageas via Globenewswire

HUG#1846685