Investor relations blog

(Ageas) Game of Eights

On the 8th day of the 8th month Ageas announced the launch of its 8th consecutive share buyback programme for an amount of EUR 200 million. By this time next year, this will bring the total amount returned to shareholders through share buy-backs to an impressive EUR 1.8 billion. So far, over the 7 programmes, more than 62.3 million shares have been bought back of which almost 60 million shares have in the meantime been cancelled. This means that in the past 7 years, Ageas has bought back an equivalent of 23% of its shares outstanding. Combined with the dividends paid out over previous years, this also means that since 2009 Ageas has returned EUR 4.8 billion (!) to shareholders or more than half Ageas’s current market capitalisation of around EUR 9.2 billion.

Last Wednesday, Ageas also reported a 6M 2018 insurance result of EUR 475 million, an increase of EUR 38 million, if excluding last year’s EUR 7 million contribution from the in the meantime sold Italian activities, or up 9%, despite adverse weather events in Belgium and the UK and lower support of capital gains. Initially, in a volatile market, Ageas’s shares opened 1.68% lower and dropped as low as EUR 44.05 or -2.78%. However, throughout the trading day, the share price strongly recovered and on Wednesday, Ageas’s shares eventually closed in the green at EUR 45.39 or up 0.18% in a downward oriented market. 

In a volatile trading week, with the economic turmoil in Turkey taking centre stage and investors increasingly concerned about the exposure of European lenders and banks to Turkey, the Ageas share eventually closed at EUR 45.30 (-0.5%) in line with the SXIP 600 Insurance Index (-0.4%), but clearly outperforming the Eurostoxx 50 (-1.6%). Since the start of the year Ageas’s shares have gained 11.3%, strongly outperforming the market and making it one of the best share price performers compared to other European insurance peers.