Busy as a Bee

You probably all know the expression to be “busy as a bee’ meaning to be moving about quickly doing many things. This phrase likely originates from something that bees are known for i.e. being hard workers buzzing around while pollinating plants, collecting nectar, building hives… The saying actually dates back to at least the 14th century when Geoffrey Chaucer, the Father of English literature, first referred to this saying in a book called The Canterbury Tales. Last week, on Wednesday, Ageas not only reported its 3M 2018 results but on the same day also held its Ordinary and Extraordinary General Meetings of Shareholders. Busy as a bee indeed!

Ageas published 3M 2018 Insurance results of EUR 299 million, up EUR 77 million compared to last year (+35%) and EUR 98 million ahead of consensus, supported by exceptional high contribution from China and with solid operating performance across all segments despite the impact of adverse weather in Belgium and the UK. During the analyst call most of the questions centred on normalised earnings, normalised capital generation and cash flow outlook. Despite the clear beat, that day the Ageas share decreased by 0.8%. However, the following day the Ageas share recovered this loss and more when on Thursday the share increased by 1.3%.

Last Wednesday afternoon Ageas also held its Ordinary and Extraordinary General Meetings of Shareholders. Clearly there was a lot of interest as 38.27 % of the share capital was represented slightly lower compared to last year (41.91%). All points on the agenda were approved almost unanimously clearly showing a high level of confidence in both the Board and the management of the company. Next to the usual points, on the agenda was also the appointment of Mrs. Sonali Chandmal as an independent non-executive member of the Board of Directors for a period of 4 years as well as the cancellation of 6,377,750 Ageas shares that were bought back in 2017, representing 3.14% of issued shares (calculated on new denominator). The EUR 2.1 gross cash dividend was also formally approved and will be paid on May 30th. On Friday’s closing price the gross dividend represented a yield of 4.7%. This means that together with the 3.14% of cancelled shares about 7.8% will be returned to shareholders.

Last trading week, the Ageas share eventually ‘buzzed’ to EUR 45.00 (+0.9%) outperforming both the EuroStoxx 50 (+0.2%) & the SXIP 600 Insurance Index (+0.4%). Since the start of the year Ageas’ shares have already increased by 10.5%.