The end of an era

Ageas is working hard on solving the remaining legacies from the Fortis era and last week marked a new step with the positive outcome of an arbitration procedure initiated by the Royal Bank of Scotland relating to an alleged indemnification promise made by Fortis in 2007. The International Chamber of Commerce ruled in favour of Ageas, dismissing in full the claims from RBS. We come closer and closer to putting the past behind us.

Regarding the Fortis Settlement, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal requested last week additional information on the compensation models of the claimant organisations.

It felt also like the end of an era in the market last week with the equity bull coming to a halt and the end of the low volatility period.

The US stocks, which had been trading at record highs recently, fell sharply on Monday. The S&P 500 suffered its worst one-day decline (-4.1%) in six years and erased within a day all of its 2018 gains. This fall was triggered by concerns over inflationary pressures. The sell-off then spread to markets in Asia and Europe, sending the Stoxx 600 to its lowest level in six months with high trading volume.

Last week saw the return of volatility after years of calm. As stock markets experienced a roller coaster ride, the focus of investors was on the Vix volatility index, Wall Street’s benchmark for share volatility which is considered a gauge of fear in the market, which climbed to 50, its highest level since 2015, compared to a 12-month average of 11.

This market turbulence pushed down Ageas’s share which closed the week down 5.1% at 40.67 euros, in line with the Stoxx 50 (-5.6%) and Stoxx Insurance index (-5.2%).