(Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall)
THE HAGUE, The Netherlands, August 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AEGON has completed a EUR 1 billion equity issue via an accelerated bookbuild. The issue was conducted under AEGON's USD Shelf Registration through the sale of a combination of new common shares and existing treasury shares. The issue comprised 157,822,000 new common shares and 32,654,191 treasury shares of AEGON N.V. with a nominal value of EUR 0.12. The shares were sold at a price of EUR 5.25 per Netherlands registered share and USD 7.50 per New York registered share.
Application has been made to list the new shares on respectively Euronext Amsterdam, the principal market for AEGON's common shares, and the New York Stock Exchange. The issue is expected to be settled on August 19, 2009 and the new shares are expected to be admitted to trading on respectively Euronext Amsterdam and the New York Stock Exchange as of that date.
AEGON intends to use the proceeds of the equity issue to repay up to EUR 1 billion of the total EUR 3 billion of core capital obtained last year from its largest shareholder, Vereniging AEGON, funded by the Dutch State. The decision to repay by December 1, 2009, is conditional on AEGON's capital position at the time of repayment and the outlook for the economy and financial markets not deteriorating materially. The repayment further requires the formal consent of the Dutch Central Bank (DNB).
J.P. Morgan acted as Sole Global Coordinator and Joint Bookrunner for the offering. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. (to be renamed The Royal Bank of Scotland N.V. in due course) and BofA Merrill Lynch acted as Joint Bookrunners. A prospectus for the offering may be obtained from J.P. Morgan Securities Ltd., 125 London Wall, London EC2Y 5AJ, United Kingdom. In addition, the prospectus may be obtained from AEGON's website, http://www.aegon.com/.
Forward-looking statements
The statements contained in this press release 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 our company. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. In particular, there is no guarantee that we will actually use the proceeds from the offering to repurchase any of our convertible core capital securities. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.
