Ageas reports Full Year 2017 results

Record Insurance net result of EUR 960 million
Proposed gross cash dividend of EUR 2.10

Full year 2017
Net Result	Insurance net profit up 33% to EUR 960 million versus EUR 721 million General Account net result of EUR 337 million negative versus EUR 694 million negative Group net result at EUR 623 million versus EUR 27 million
Inflows	Group inflows (at 100%) at EUR 33.8 billion, up 7% (including 3% negative foreign exchange impact) Group inflows (Ageas's part) grew 2% to EUR 14.4 billion (including 2% negative foreign exchange impact) Life inflows up 9% to EUR 27.6 billion and Non-Life down 1% at EUR 6.2 billion (both at 100%)
Operating Performance	Combined ratio at 95.2% versus 101.1% Operating Margin Guaranteed stable at 93 bps Operating Margin Unit-Linked at 27 bps versus 25 bps Life Technical Liabilities of the consolidated entities at EUR 74.7 billion and stable compared to the end of 2016
Balance Sheet	Shareholders' equity remains stable at EUR 9.6 billion Shareholders' equity per share increased from EUR 46.56 to EUR 48.30 as the number of shares reduced, following the share buy-back programme Insurance solvency IIageas ratio and Group solvency II both at 196% General Account Total Liquid Assets at EUR 1.8 billion versus EUR 1.9 billion end 2016
Dividend	Regular gross dividend up from EUR 1.70 to EUR 2.10. The 2016 EUR 2.10 total gross cash dividend included EUR 0.4 related to the sale of Hong Kong
4th quarter 2017
Net Result	Insurance net profit up at EUR 274 million Net result benefited from capital gain of EUR 77 million as a result of the sale of the Italian Non-Life activities
Inflows	Group inflows (at 100%) at 6.7 billion, down 3%
Operating Performance	Non-Life: excellent combined ratio of 96.2% Life: lower operating result due to the absence of capital gains on investments

All 12-month 2017 figures are compared to the 12-month 2016 figures unless otherwise stated.

Ageas CEO Bart De Smet said: "We are very pleased to announce our 2017 results, the best in our history. A strong operating performance in Belgium, Continental Europe and Asia, and progress made in the UK, despite continuing impact from the Ogden rate changes, all contributed to our performance.

Based on these results and confident in our capacity to generate cash, we will propose to our shareholders a gross cash dividend of EUR 2.10 per share. This represents a pay-out ratio of 42% of the net Insurance result and an increase of 24% compared to the 2016 dividend of EUR 1.70, excluding the exceptional EUR 0.40 related to the Hong Kong divestment.

I am very pleased that our continuous focus and persistence resulted in the achievement of our financial targets in 2017. I am also optimistic that we will confirm this achievement in the last year of our Ambition 2018 cycle. In the meantime, we are preparing our strategic plan for the period 2019-2021 and will present this after the summer."

Full version press release (http://hugin.info/134212/R/2170385/836079.pdf)

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Source: Ageas via Globenewswire