- Aegon Hungary Pension Fund to merge with UNIQA and Public Service Pension Fund
- Total pension fund members in region rises by 10% to 1.5 million
Aegon Hungary Pension Fund will merge with UNIQA and Public Service Pension Fund. This step will further strengthen Aegon’s position in the rapidly developing pension market throughout Central & Eastern Europe. Members of the two funds approved the merger at separate meetings in Budapest earlier today. The merged fund will operate under the Aegon brand name.
Over the past several years, Aegon has been steadily expanding its presence in Central & Eastern Europe. The Group now has businesses in six countries in the region – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Turkey. This latest step is part of a broader strategy outlined earlier this month by Aegon's new CEO Alex Wynaendts to expand Aegon’s presence into regions and business lines with higher growth, higher return prospects. In Central & Eastern Europe, reform and strong economic growth are leading to increased demand for pensions, life insurance and other long-term savings and investment products.
With the merger, Aegon pension funds in Central & Eastern Europe will number 1.5 million members, an increase of 140,000 or 10%. Aegon is aiming to raise that figure to a total of 2.3 million pension fund members in Central & Eastern Europe by 2010.
The merger will significantly strengthen Aegon’s position in Hungary, almost doubling the Group’s share of the voluntary pension fund market and raising its share of the mandatory pension fund market to just over 20%. Once the merger is completed, Aegon Hungary’s pension fund will have a total of 810,000 members and approximately EUR 2 billion in assets under management. The merger still requires approval from Hungary’s regulatory authorities.
In a separate transaction earlier this year, Aegon bought UNIQA Asset Management Company and Heller-Saldo 2000 Pension Fund Management Company, which provide asset management and administration services respectively to UNIQA and Public Service Pension Fund. These entities will be integrated in Aegon’s own operations.
