AEGON 9-Month Net Income up 62% to $1.6 Billion

Dutch financial services and insurance group AEGON N.V, reported strong increases in its results for the first nine months of 2004 with net income up almost 62 percent for the period to 1.238 billion euros ($1.6 billion), compared to 764 million ($988 million) in the same period of 2003.

Other highlights cited by the report included:
— All major country units contributed to strong growth in earnings
— Income before realized gains and losses on shares and real estate increased 36 percent to 1.378 billion euros [$1.78 billion] (46 percent at constant exchange rates)
— Revenue generating investments amounted to 306 billion euros [$395.6 billion], an increase of 8 percent from the beginning of 2004.

The report noted that during the first nine months, “AEGON expanded its activities by establishing new operations and distribution agreements in both existing and newly developing markets. In Spain, the partnership with CAM has made an encouraging start. The activities in Slovakia have shown a promising first year and AEGON has just launched a pension fund company to broaden its activities. The national cooperation agreement with the Agricultural Bank of China, which was announced recently, is an important step in enhancing the multi-channel distribution platform in China. In addition, AEGON sold the majority of the non-core Transamerica Finance Corporation (TFC) businesses, in early 2004 and late 2003, and recently closed the sale of TFC’s maritime container leasing company. AEGON expects to sell TFC’s European trailer leasing business by the end of 2004.”

“AEGON’s strong nine-months earnings demonstrate our commitment to managing our business for profitability, maintaining our franchise value and delivering products that serve evolving customer needs”, said Chairman of the Executive Board Donald J. Shepard. “This strategy has yielded profitable growth in all of our major country units.”

The full report may be obtained on the company’s Web site at: http://www.aegon.com.