Aegon has entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of Ankara Emeklilik Anonim Sirketi (Ankara Emeklilik), a Turkish life insurance and pension provider, from Polis Bakim ve Yardim Sandigi.
The move is Aegon's first step in the fast-growing Turkish life insurance and pension market. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval in Turkey, and is expected to close in the first half of 2008.
Turkey offers attractive long-term growth prospects for Aegon. The country, with its population of 74 million, has a low life insurance penetration and the private pensions market has an attractive growth potential. Don Shepard, Aegon's Chairman and CEO, said: "We have consistently identified Turkey as a market where we believe we can leverage Aegon's broad capabilities in life insurance and pension products. This acquisition provides Aegon an ideal platform to pursue growth in this increasingly important market. We will rely on the strong expertise that we have developed in the broader Central and Eastern European region to serve customers in Turkey with innovative and need-specific products and services." The acquisition of Ankara Emeklilik will complement the recent expansion of Aegon's business in Central and Eastern Europe, where Aegon has operations in five countries: Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania.
Ankara Emeklilik has a well-established presence in the Turkish life insurance and private pension market, with over 54,000 pension fund members and approximately EUR 35 million in assets under management*. Ankara Emeklilik sells its products and services through a variety of different channels and has an agreement in place to distribute through a nationwide network of 236 branches belonging to Şekerbank.
As part of its overall growth strategy, Aegon is aiming to further expand its businesses in Central and Eastern Europe over the coming years. Aegon expects to more than double its number of pension fund members in Central and Eastern Europe by 2010 to 2.5 million. Value of New Business from Central and Easter Europe - a key measure of the Group's future profitability - is expected to rise over the same period to EUR 100 million, up from EUR 46 million in 2006.
* Source: Pension Monitoring Center - February 18, 2008
