AEGON moves further into Eastern Europe
10 July 2008

Written by Sophie Baker

AEGON has further cemented its presence in Central and Eastern Europe with the acquisition of the Turkish life insurance and pension provider Ankara Emeklilik.

The acquisition marks AEGON’s first step into the Turkish market, and is marketed as part of a broader strategy to build scale in emerging markets. The firm agreed to buy Ankara Emeklilik in February 2008, and AEGON also has operations in the region in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Romania.

Gábor Kepecs, the member of AEGON’s management board responsible for Central and Eastern Europe, said: “In June, when we presented our new Group strategy, we said we wanted to build scale in emerging markets like Central and Eastern Europe – markets that offer sustainable, profitable growth in the years ahead. The acquisition of Ankara Emeklilik is very much part of this strategy.” AEGON has appointed Ugur Tozsekerli as CEO designate of Ankara Emeklilik.

As part of the group’s new strategy, ‘Unlocking the Global Potential’, AEGON aims to achieve a ten per cent share of the mandatory pension market in Central and Eastern Europe by 2010, increasing the number of pension fund members in the region to 2.3million up from approximately two million at present. Ankara Emeklilik currently has over 58,000 pension fund members and approximately €35million in assets under management.