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
March 2017
Aegon N.V.
Aegonplein 50
2591 TV THE HAGUE
The Netherlands
Aegon’s press release, dated March 24, 2017, 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: March 24, 2017 | By | /s/ J.O. van Klinken | ||||
| J.O. van Klinken | ||||||
| Executive Vice President and | ||||||
| General Counsel | ||||||
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Aegon publishes 2016 Annual Report and Review
Aegon N.V. today released its 2016 Annual Report and will file its Annual Report on Form 20-F with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
For the sixth consecutive year, Aegon’s Annual Report is accompanied by a separate integrated report, Aegon’s 2016 Review. The Review explains how Aegon creates and shares value for its stakeholders by featuring customers, employees, investors, and local communities. It highlights seven material topics affecting Aegon’s business, including aging and changing demographics, the impact of new technologies, increased regulation, and economic and financial uncertainty.
The Review also includes an interview with Alex Wynaendts, Aegon’s CEO, in which he reflects on the significant progress being made towards Aegon’s 2018 targets, including accelerating the pace of change to become a more digital, sustainable and customer-centric company. Rob Routs, Chairman of Aegon’s Supervisory Board, in his interview focuses on changes in the composition of the Management Board and the role of the Supervisory Board in setting Aegon’s strategy.
The Annual Report contains an updated estimate for the Group Solvency II ratio of 157% at year-end 2016, as a result of a change in the calculation of the risk margin in the Netherlands. For the year-end 2016 position management decided to add a risk margin for expense inflation risk, leading to a 2%-points downward adjustment of the Group Solvency II ratio compared with the estimate published on February 17, 2017. Despite the fact that the best estimate expense inflation assumptions used by Aegon the Netherlands in its technical provisions are market consistent and that inflation risk is economically hedgeable, management decided to be prudent and follow a strict legal interpretation of the regulation. Management is fully committed to increase the Solvency II ratio of Aegon the Netherlands through a range of management actions.
The Solvency II ratios as disclosed in the 2016 Annual Report represent Aegon’s estimates, and are still subject to final interpretations of Solvency II regulations and regulatory review. More detailed information on the Solvency II ratios of Aegon’s operating units and the group will be available in the Solvency and Financial Condition Reports (SFCRs) which will be published in the coming months.
Digital copies of Aegon’s 2016 Annual Report, 2016 Annual Report on Form 20-F and 2016 Review are available on aegon.com. A hard copy of the Annual Report, including the audited financial statements, can be ordered free of charge by visiting aegon.com. Other documents relating to Aegon’s Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on May 19, 2017, including the agenda, will be available online from April 7, 2017.
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About Aegon
Aegon’s roots go back more than 170 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/about.
Contacts
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Media relations Debora de Laaf
+31 (0) 70 344 8730 gcc@aegon.com |
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Investor relations Willem van den Berg
+31 (0) 70 344 8405 ir@aegon.com | |||||||
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Disclaimer
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, 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 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 private sector securities and the resulting decline in the value of sovereign exposure that Aegon holds; |
| • | Changes in the performance of Aegon’s investment portfolio and decline in ratings of Aegon’s counterparties; |
| • | Consequences of a potential (partial) break-up of the euro; |
| • | Consequences of the anticipated exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union; |
| • | 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; |
| • | Reinsurers to whom Aegon has ceded significant underwriting risks may fail to meet their obligations; |
| • | 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; |
| • | 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); |
| • | 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; |
| • | Acts of God, acts of terrorism, acts of war and pandemics; |
| • | Changes in the policies of central banks and/or governments; |
| • | 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 premium writings, 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; |
| • | Litigation or regulatory action that could require Aegon to pay significant damages or change the way Aegon does business; |
| • | As Aegon’s operations support complex transactions and are highly dependent on the proper functioning of information technology, a computer system failure or security breach may disrupt Aegon’s business, damage its reputation and adversely affect its results of operations, financial condition and cash flows; |
| • | Customer responsiveness to both new products and distribution channels; |
| • | Competitive, legal, regulatory, or tax changes that affect profitability, the distribution cost of or demand for Aegon’s products; |
| • | 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 and shareholders’ equity; |
| • | 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; |
| • | 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; |
| • | Catastrophic events, either manmade or by nature, could result in material losses and significantly interrupt Aegon’s business; |
| • | Aegon’s failure to achieve anticipated levels of earnings or operational efficiencies as well as other cost saving and excess capital and leverage ratio management initiatives; and |
| • | This press release contains information that qualifies, or may qualify, as inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation. |
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.