10 : Aegon NV

Worldwide GWP for 1998 (£000s):
£8,155,083 (1997: £6,280,047)

Chief executive:
Kees J Storm

Biography:
Education University of Rotterdam 1963-1969
Business Economics (MA) 1969
CPA 1972
Career: May 1993 chairman executive board AEGON NV
1983-1993 - member of executive board AEGON NV
1978-1983 - member of executive board Kon. Scholten-Honig NV
1970-1976 CPA Moret & Limperg

Year company established:
1983

Address, telephone and fax number of European head office:
Mariahoeveplein 50
2501 CE The Hague
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 70 344 2 10
Fax: +31 70 383 27 73
http://www.aegon.nl

Key personnel:
Paul van de Geijn (chairman of the executive board)
Donald J Shepard (member of the executive board)
Henk B. van Wijk (member of the executive board)

Company history:
AEGON has over 150 years of experience in the field of insurance, reinsurance and savings products, including pensions. Since the 70s, however, the company has developed into a fully international group with particularly strong interests in the UK, the USA, Hungary and Spain. It is, however, also represented in Canada, Mexico, Germany, India and China.

The company assumed its present form in 1983 when two predecessor companies, Ernia and AGO, merged to form an international group. Ernia was already operating as a limited company and had been running operations in the United Kingdom and Spain since 1974 and 1979 respectively. AGO was a mutual company which had already begun the acquisition of a US based insurer.

In 1999 AEGON acquired San Francisco-based Transamerica Corp. for approximately $11.8bn, a deal that left it with the third-largest share of life insurance business in the United States, as well as the second-largest share of life reinsurance business. It also acquired the UK life insurance operations of Guardian Royal Exchange plc (GRE), which now fall under the remit of AEGON UK plc. The entire group manages Euro 117 billion of funds (1998)

Aegon's shares are now listed in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, New York (NYSE), Tokyo and Zurich. Options are traded in the AEX Options Exchange in Amsterdam, the Chicago Board Options Exchange and the Philadelphia Stock Exchange.

Lines of business:
Accident and Sickness (0.7%)
Banking (0.7%)
Motor
Fire
Life, including Pensions (97%)

Worldwide net written premium for 1998 (£000s):
£7,784,703

Worldwide net written premium for 1997 (£000s):
£5,941,619