The Principal Financial Group®, Inc. (NYSE:PFG) announced that it will acquire AXA’s Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) and Occupational Retirement Schemes Ordinance (ORSO) pension business in Hong Kong for approximately US $335 million.

The Principal and AXA will also enter into an exclusive 15-year distribution agreement to provide pension products through AXA’s extensive agency network in Hong Kong.

The transaction is expected to close third quarter 2015, subject to regulatory approvals. Upon approval, The Principal will more than double the assets under management of its Hong Kong pension business to more than US $6 billion and will be ranked as the fifth largest MPF provider in that market.

We expect the transaction to be accretive to EPS and ROE in the first full year.

According to Larry D. Zimpleman, chairman, president and CEO of The Principal, “This acquisition continues our effort to target strategic acquisitions that strengthen our competitive position in the most attractive emerging retirement and long-term savings markets in the world. This marks our ninth strategic transaction since the financial crisis and demonstrates how our diversified, fee-based business model generates financial strength and opportunities to grow our business. The distribution agreement with AXA will provide a significant opportunity for growth for our business in Hong Kong, as we’ve seen with similar agreements in other regions, and demonstrates our ability to generate long-term value for our shareholders.”

“The AXA pension business fits naturally with our international strategy, providing critical scale and expanding our growing base in key markets like Hong Kong,” said Luis Valdes, president of Principal International. “We’ve been very successful in establishing a leading retirement franchise in Latin America by growing through relationships with marquee distribution partners and strategic acquisitions. The relationship with AXA, a globally-recognized company, combined with our pension expertise, continues to drive our growth in Asia.”

About the Principal Financial Group

The Principal Financial Group® (The Principal®)1 is a global investment management leader offering retirement services, insurance solutions and asset management. The Principal offers businesses, individuals and institutional clients a wide range of financial products and services, including retirement, asset management and insurance through its diverse family of financial services companies. Founded in 1879 and a member of the FORTUNE 500®, the Principal Financial Group has $513.5 billion in assets under management2 and serves some 19.5 million customers worldwide from offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and the United States. Principal Financial Group, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PFG. For more information, visit www.principal.com.

About The AXA Group

The AXA Group is a worldwide leader in insurance and asset management, with 157,000 employees serving 102 million clients in 56 countries. In 2013, IFRS revenues amounted to Euro 91.2 billion and IFRS underlying earnings to Euro 4.7 billion. AXA had Euro 1,113 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2013.

The AXA ordinary share is listed on compartment A of Euronext Paris under the ticker symbol CS (ISN FR 0000120628 – Bloomberg: CS FP – Reuters: AXAF.PA). AXA’s American Depository Share is also quoted on the OTC QX platform under the ticker symbol AXAHY.

The AXA Group is included in the main international SRI indexes, such as Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and FTSE4GOOD. It is a founding member of the UN Environment Programme’s Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) Principles for Sustainable Insurance and a signatory of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment. For more information, visit www.axa.com.

Forward looking and cautionary statements: Principal Financial Group

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements as to operating earnings, net income available to common stockholders, net cash flows, realized and unrealized gains and losses, capital and liquidity positions, sales and earnings trends, and management's beliefs, expectations, goals and opinions. The company does not undertake to update these statements, which are based on a number of assumptions concerning future conditions that may ultimately prove to be inaccurate. Future events and their effects on the company may not be those anticipated, and actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements. The risks, uncertainties and factors that could cause or contribute to such material differences are discussed in the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2013, and in the company’s quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2014, filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as updated or supplemented from time to time in subsequent filings. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation: adverse capital and credit market conditions may significantly affect the company’s ability to meet liquidity needs, access to capital and cost of capital; conditions in the global capital markets and the economy generally; continued volatility or declines in the equity, bond or real estate markets; changes in interest rates or credit spreads; the company’s investment portfolio is subject to several risks that may diminish the value of its invested assets and the investment returns credited to customers; the company’s valuation of securities may include methodologies, estimations and assumptions that are subject to differing interpretations; the determination of the amount of allowances and impairments taken on the company’s investments requires estimations and assumptions that are subject to differing interpretations; gross unrealized losses may be realized or result in future impairments; competition from companies that may have greater financial resources, broader arrays of products, higher ratings and stronger financial performance; a downgrade in the company’s financial strength or credit ratings; inability to attract and retain sales representatives and develop new distribution sources; international business risks; the company’s actual experience could differ significantly from its pricing and reserving assumptions; the company’s ability to pay stockholder dividends and meet its obligations may be constrained by the limitations on dividends or distributions Iowa insurance laws impose on Principal Life; the pattern of amortizing the company’s DAC and other actuarial balances on its universal life-type insurance contracts, participating life insurance policies and certain investment contracts may change; the company may need to fund deficiencies in its “Closed Block” assets that support participating ordinary life insurance policies that had a dividend scale in force at the time of Principal Life’s 1998 conversion into a stock life insurance company; the company’s reinsurers could default on their obligations or increase their rates; risks arising from acquisitions of businesses; changes in laws, regulations or accounting standards; a computer system failure or security breach could disrupt the company’s business and damage its reputation; results of litigation and regulatory investigations; from time to time the company may become subject to tax audits, tax litigation or similar proceedings, and as a result it may owe additional taxes, interest and penalties in amounts that may be material; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; and applicable laws and the company’s certificate of incorporation and by-laws may discourage takeovers and business combinations that some stockholders might consider in their best interests.

1 “The Principal Financial Group” and “The Principal” are registered service marks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., a member of the Principal Financial Group.

2 As of Sept. 30, 2014.