 | 751996 PRESS RELEASE |
AEGON N.V. ANNOUNCES OFFERING OF USD 925 MILLION
OF 6.375 % PERPETUAL CAPITAL SECURITIES
The Hague, May 26, 2005 – AEGON N.V. announces the pricing of an offering of USD 925 million in 6.375 % Perpetual Capital Securities in an SEC registered offering.
The Perpetual Capital Securities will carry a fixed coupon of 6.375 % and are priced at USD 25. Application will be made to list the Perpetual Capital Securities on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The offer is expected to close on June 1, 2005, and the Perpetual Capital Securities are expected to be admitted for trading on the NYSE within 30 days thereafter. The proceeds from the issue will be used for general corporate purposes. This issue will further strengthen AEGON’s capital base in a non-dilutive and cost effective manner.
The joint bookrunners for the offering of AEGON Perpetual Capital Securities are Merrill Lynch & Co. and UBS Investment Bank. Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Wachovia Securities are senior co-managers. The offering is being made only pursuant to a prospectus supplement and an accompanying prospectus, copies of which may be obtained when available from Merrill Lynch & Co., 4 World Financial Center, New York, telephone 212 449-1000 and UBS Securities LLC, 677 Washington Blvd, Stamford, CT 06901 attention Fixed Income Syndicate, telephone 203 719-1088.
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of the Perpetual Capital Securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale is unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.
Forward-looking statements
The statements contained and incorporated by reference in this prospectus and any accompanying prospectus supplement that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “believe,” “estimate,” “intend,” “may,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “predict,” “project,” “counting on,” “plan,” “continue,” “want,” “forecast,” “should,” “would,” “is confident” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to us are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. We undertake 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 speak only as of their dates. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations, including, but 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: |
| • | the frequency and severity of defaults by issuers in our fixed income investment portfolios; and |
| • | the effects of corporate bankruptcies and/or accounting restatements on the financial markets and the resulting decline in value of equity and debt securities we hold; |
| ¨ | the frequency and severity of insured loss events; |
| ¨ | changes affecting mortality, morbidity and other factors that may affect the profitability of our insurance products; |
| ¨ | changes affecting interest rate levels, continuing low interest rate levels and rapidly increasing interest rate levels; |
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| ¨ | changes affecting currency exchange rates, including the euro/U.S. dollar and euro/UK pound exchange rates; |
| ¨ | increasing levels of competition in the United States, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and emerging markets; |
| ¨ | changes in laws and regulations, particularly those affecting our operations, the products we sell and the attractiveness of certain products to our customers; |
| ¨ | regulatory changes relating to the insurance industry in the jurisdictions in which we operate; |
| ¨ | acts of God, acts of terrorism and acts of war; |
| ¨ | changes in the policies of central banks and/or foreign governments; |
| ¨ | litigation or regulatory action that could require us to pay significant damages or change the way we do business; |
| ¨ | customer responsiveness to both new products and distribution channels; |
| ¨ | competitive, legal, regulatory or tax changes that affect the distribution cost of or demand for our products; |
| ¨ | our failure to achieve anticipated levels of earnings or operational efficiencies as well as other cost-saving initiatives; and |
| ¨ | changes in our reported results of operations or financial condition as a result of the adoption by us of International Financial Reporting Standards. |
AEGON N.V.
Group Corporate Affairs & Investor Relations
| The Hague, the Netherlands | ||
| Analysts & Investors | +31 (0)70 344 83 05 | |
| Media | +31 (0)70 344 83 44 | |
| gca-ir@aegon.com | ||
| Baltimore, the United States | ||
| Analysts & Investors | +1 877 548 9668 (toll free) / +1 410 576 45 77 | |
| Media | +1 410 576 45 26 | |
| ir@aegonusa.com | ||
| Website:www.aegon.com | ||
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