It was a challenging week both inside and outside the equity market place. The Belgian Red Devils lost, a bit unexpectedly, the Euro 2016 quarter-final against the Welsh Red Dragons, despite the cheers and Belgian beers!. On Tuesday you had the really tragic events in Istanbul. Ageas extends its sincere sympathies and condolences to those impacted.

On the equity markets it was also a difficult week. After a devastating Black Friday (the Euro Stoxx 50 lost 8.6% after the Brexit referendum) we woke up after the weekend with a manic Monday on which the Euro Stoxx 50 lost an additional 2.8%. On Fridays and Mondays like these I could not agree more with the lyrics of The Bangles first hit: “I wish it was Sunday. My I don't have to run day.” Over the whole trading week, Ageas’s shares have lost 3.9% while the Euro Stoxx Insurance index lost 0.7% as the index was supported mainly by the reinsurance companies that ended 2 to 3% in the green and because Ageas outperformed the Euro Stoxx Insurance on Brexit Black Friday by more than 3%.

On Monday there was also a bit of news on the legal front when Ageas announced that Mr. Geert Lenssens will join the global settlement. Alongside the initial signatories Deminor, Stichting FortisEffect, SICAF and VEB, this agreement has in the meantime been supported by Mr. Arnauts and now by Mr. Lenssens. As you know, the request to declare the settlement agreement of 14 March 2016 binding, was submitted to the Amsterdam Court of Appeal on 23 May 2016.

The month of July also signals that a fresh RPN(i) valuation has been calculated and published (https://www.ageas.com/sites/default/files/rpni_end_june_2016.pdf). The RPN(i) value at the end of the month of June amounted to EUR 291 million. 656 Cashes have been converted of which 636 in the second quarter and 159 in the month of June. After these transactions 3.791 out of the original 12.000 remain outstanding.