Today Ageas announced that its 4 th quarter 2016 result will be negatively impacted by exceptional items totalling EUR 137 million:
- In the UK, the restructuring cost for the announced closure of the Glasgow office is EUR 27 million. Additional provisions are also being made for exceptional underwriting losses and reserve strengthening in Special Risks (EUR 25 million) and strengthening of the claims reserve for personal injuries by lowering the internally applied Ogden rate from 2.5% to 1% (EUR 55 million) in anticipation of the awaited final decision by the UK Lord Chancellor of changes to the Ogden discount rate to be applied to such claims across the whole UK Industry.
- In Asia, equity impairments amounted to EUR 30 million.
Taking into consideration the exceptional character of the Q4 results and the remaining strong Insurance Solvency II ageas ratio at 181%, the Group's capital management and 2016 dividend proposal will not be affected. For this reason, the Ageas Board will propose to the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on 17 May 2017, the distribution of a total gross cash dividend of EUR 2.10 per share over 2016. This dividend is made up of the regular component which in this case will be EUR 1.70 compared to EUR 1.65 over 2015, and an exceptional component of EUR 0.40 related to the capital gain on the Hong Kong divestment.
For any further details, Ageas refers to its full year 2016 results publication on Wednesday 15 February 2017, 07:30 CET.
Ageas is a listed international insurance Group with a heritage spanning 190 years. It offers Retail and Business customers Life and Non-Life insurance products designed to suit their specific needs, today and tomorrow. As one of Europe's larger insurance companies, Ageas concentrates its activities in Europe and Asia, which together make up the major part of the global insurance market. It operates successful insurance businesses in Belgium, the UK, Luxembourg, France, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, China, Malaysia, India, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines through a combination of wholly owned subsidiaries and long term partnerships with strong financial institutions and key distributors. Ageas ranks among the market leaders in the countries in which it operates. It represents a staff force of over 40,000 people and reported annual inflows close to EUR 30 billion in 2015 (all figures at 100%).
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