Aegon Ltd 6-K, filed Apr 6, 2020
Aegon Ltd. (AEG)
About this 6-K
Aegon Ltd filed this 6-K on April 6, 2020.
Securities and Exchange Commission
Washington, D.C. 20549
Form 6-K
Report of Foreign Issuer
Pursuant to Rule 13a-16 or 15d/16 of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
April 2020
Aegon N.V.
Aegonplein 50
2591 TV THE HAGUE
The Netherlands
Aegon’s press release, dated April 3, 2020, is included as appendix and incorporated herein by reference.
SIGNATURE
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
| Aegon N.V. | ||||||
| (Registrant) | ||||||
| Date: April 3, 2020 | By | /s/ J.O. van Klinken | ||||
| J.O. van Klinken | ||||||
| Executive Vice President and General Counsel | ||||||
Exhibit 99.1
The Hague – April 3, 2020
Aegon convenes AGM; complies with DNB call to postpone dividend
Today, Aegon N.V. has published the agenda for its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM) on Friday, May 15, 2020. Furthermore, Aegon announces that it will comply with the call of DNB to postpone paying dividends.
On April 2, 2020, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority and DNB, Aegon’s principal regulator, published statements urging insurers to temporarily postpone all dividend distributions. Aegon will comply with this request, as a result of which the company will forego its 2019 final dividend of EUR 0.16 per common share. Taking into account the interim dividend paid in September 2019, this results in a total dividend for the financial year 2019 of EUR 0.15 per common share. Aegon will review opportunities for returning capital to its shareholders as soon as appropriate.
Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, Aegon and its subsidiaries have maintained strong capital positions. Given the current extraordinary circumstances, Aegon plans to provide an update on May 12, 2020 of its business performance over the first quarter of 2020 and its capital position.
The Dutch government has imposed various COVID-19 related restrictions with respect to public gatherings. In organizing the AGM, Aegon will comply with these restrictions and will, in connection with the COVID-19 outbreak, observe a duty of care towards its shareholders, business partners and employees. Aegon may take measures with respect to the location of the AGM and the admittance of persons to the physical meeting, if any.
Aegon urges its shareholders not to attend the meeting in person, but, instead, to make use of the other means to participate in the AGM. A webcast of the AGM will be available at www.aegon.com. Shareholders who have registered to attend the AGM can vote through an e-voting system of ABN AMRO which entails a voting instruction to a (deputy) civil law notary of Allen & Overy LLP. Shareholders will also be able to grant a proxy with or without voting instruction to the company secretary and submit written questions relating to the agenda items. Aegon advises its shareholders to regularly check its website www.aegon.com for any updates.
The agenda includes a proposal to adopt the Annual Accounts 2019. All documents relating to Aegon’s AGM, including the convocation notice and the agenda, are available on the company’s website. The website also provides more information for shareholders on how to exercise voting rights and how to submit written questions in advance of the meeting.
About Aegon
Aegon’s roots go back 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.
| Contacts | ||
| Media relations | Investor relations | |
| Dick Schiethart | Jan Willem Weidema | |
| +31(0) 70 344 8821 | +31(0) 70 344 8028 | |
| dick.schiethart@aegon.com | janwillem.weidema@aegon.com | |
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The Hague – April 3, 2020
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 cost saving and excess cash and leverage ratio management initiatives; |
| • | 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.
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