Aegon gets €3bn government cash

Tuesday 28 October 2008

Insurance company Aegon is the latest Dutch company to get government investmen. It will be given a €3bn injection from the state’s rescue fund for financial institutions hit by the credit crisis.

The move was announced by Aegon and the finance ministry on Tuesday morning. In return for the cash, the state will appoint two members of Aegon’s supervisory board.

Senior executives will also forgo any bonuses this year and golden handshakes will be limited to one year’s salary.

‘With this capital injection Aegon can remain a healthy and well run insurance group with a robust capital buffer and this means it is one of the stronger international insurers,’ said the finance ministry in a statement.

Aegon is the second financial institution to get cash from the €20bn fund set up by the government to help ‘fundamentally healthy’ companies.

Earlier this month, ING received €10bn from the fund. ABN Amro bank and Fortis Nederland were both fully nationalised on October 3.

Meanwhile Christian Democrat MPs have urged the government to use earnings from its bank stakes to reduce the national debt.

‘If the cost of these [rescue operations] is added to the national debt, it is only reasonable that the income is used to reduce that debt, CDA parliamentary leader Pieter van Geel said in the Financieele Dagblad.

It would be wrong in principle to use the income from its shareholdings for extra expenditure, Van Geel said.

© DutchNews.nl

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