Aegon sells the Pyramid building complex in San Francisco
29 October 2020 - 5:30PM
Business Wire
Aegon has completed the sale of the Pyramid building complex
in San Francisco, California, for USD 650 million, while retaining
the naming rights
Regulatory News:
Transamerica, Aegon’s business in the United States, has sold
the Pyramid building complex which includes the Pyramid, 505
Sansome, the Redwood Park and other properties in the block bounded
by Montgomery Street, Clay Street, Washington Street, and Sansome
Street in San Francisco, to a joint venture led by Michael Shvo.
Transamerica will continue to use the Pyramid as its logo and
trademark. Transamerica will provide a mortgage loan supporting the
property at commercial rates. The transaction will allow for a
further diversification of the investment portfolio at favorable
yields, therewith improving the risk profile of the Group.
“I am pleased that we have taken another step to strengthen our
balance sheet with the sale of the Pyramid building complex,”
commented Lard Friese, CEO of Aegon. “Transamerica built the
property and has owned it since construction was completed in 1972.
I am proud that we will continue to be associated with this
landmark as we have retained the naming and branding rights.”
The sale further strengthens the company’s balance sheet and is
expected to lead to statutory capital benefits of USD 390 million.
This is mainly the result of a realized gain on the sale, and the
release of the associated required capital. The majority of the
capital benefit is intended to be upstreamed to the intermediate US
holding, which will use it to reduce affiliate notes with the US
life insurance companies. The sale is expected to lead to an
increase of the Group’s Solvency II ratio by 4%-points.
About Aegon Aegon’s roots go back more than 175 years –
to the first half of the nineteenth century. Since then, Aegon has
grown into an international company, with businesses in more than
20 countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Today, Aegon is one
of the world’s leading financial services organizations, providing
life insurance, pensions and asset management. Aegon’s purpose is
to help people achieve a lifetime of financial security. More
information on aegon.com.
Forward-looking statements The statements contained in
this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking
statements as defined in the US Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. The following are words that identify such
forward-looking statements: aim, believe, estimate, target, intend,
may, expect, anticipate, predict, project, counting on, plan,
continue, want, forecast, goal, should, would, could, is confident,
will, and similar expressions as they relate to Aegon. These
statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve
risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict.
Aegon undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any
forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place
undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which merely
reflect company expectations at the time of writing. Actual results
may differ materially from expectations conveyed in forward-looking
statements due to changes caused by various risks and
uncertainties. Such risks and uncertainties include but are not
limited to the following:
- Changes in general economic and/or governmental conditions,
particularly in the United States, the Netherlands and the United
Kingdom;
- Changes in the performance of financial markets, including
emerging markets, such as with regard to:
- The frequency and severity of defaults by issuers in Aegon’s
fixed income investment portfolios;
- The effects of corporate bankruptcies and/or accounting
restatements on the financial markets and the resulting decline in
the value of equity and debt securities Aegon holds; and
- The effects of declining creditworthiness of certain public
sector securities and the resulting decline in the value of
government exposure that Aegon holds;
- Changes in the performance of Aegon’s investment portfolio and
decline in ratings of Aegon’s counterparties;
- Lowering of one or more of Aegon’s debt ratings issued by
recognized rating organizations and the adverse impact such action
may have on Aegon’s ability to raise capital and on its liquidity
and financial condition;
- Lowering of one or more of insurer financial strength ratings
of Aegon’s insurance subsidiaries and the adverse impact such
action may have on the written premium, policy retention,
profitability and liquidity of its insurance subsidiaries;
- The effect of the European Union’s Solvency II requirements and
other regulations in other jurisdictions affecting the capital
Aegon is required to maintain;
- Changes affecting interest rate levels and continuing low or
rapidly changing interest rate levels;
- Changes affecting currency exchange rates, in particular the
EUR/USD and EUR/GBP exchange rates;
- Changes in the availability of, and costs associated with,
liquidity sources such as bank and capital markets funding, as well
as conditions in the credit markets in general such as changes in
borrower and counterparty creditworthiness;
- Increasing levels of competition in the United States, the
Netherlands, the United Kingdom and emerging markets;
- Catastrophic events, either manmade or by nature, including by
way of example acts of God, acts of terrorism, acts of war and
pandemics, could result in material losses and significantly
interrupt Aegon’s business;
- The frequency and severity of insured loss events;
- Changes affecting longevity, mortality, morbidity, persistence
and other factors that may impact the profitability of Aegon’s
insurance products;
- Aegon’s projected results are highly sensitive to complex
mathematical models of financial markets, mortality, longevity, and
other dynamic systems subject to shocks and unpredictable
volatility. Should assumptions to these models later prove
incorrect, or should errors in those models escape the controls in
place to detect them, future performance will vary from projected
results;
- Reinsurers to whom Aegon has ceded significant underwriting
risks may fail to meet their obligations;
- Changes in customer behavior and public opinion in general
related to, among other things, the type of products Aegon sells,
including legal, regulatory or commercial necessity to meet
changing customer expectations;
- Customer responsiveness to both new products and distribution
channels;
- As Aegon’s operations support complex transactions and are
highly dependent on the proper functioning of information
technology, operational risks such as system disruptions or
failures, security or data privacy breaches, cyberattacks, human
error, failure to safeguard personally identifiable information,
changes in operational practices or inadequate controls including
with respect to third parties with which we do business may disrupt
Aegon’s business, damage its reputation and adversely affect its
results of operations, financial condition and cash flows;
- The impact of acquisitions and divestitures, restructurings,
product withdrawals and other unusual items, including Aegon’s
ability to integrate acquisitions and to obtain the anticipated
results and synergies from acquisitions;
- Aegon’s failure to achieve anticipated levels of earnings or
operational efficiencies as well as other cost saving and excess
cash and leverage ratio management initiatives;
- Changes in the policies of central banks and/or
governments;
- Litigation or regulatory action that could require Aegon to pay
significant damages or change the way Aegon does business;
- Competitive, legal, regulatory, or tax changes that affect
profitability, the distribution cost of or demand for Aegon’s
products;
- Consequences of an actual or potential break-up of the European
monetary union in whole or in part, or the exit of the United
Kingdom from the European Union and potential consequences if other
European Union countries leave the European Union;
- Changes in laws and regulations, particularly those affecting
Aegon’s operations’ ability to hire and retain key personnel,
taxation of Aegon companies, the products Aegon sells, and the
attractiveness of certain products to its consumers;
- Regulatory changes relating to the pensions, investment, and
insurance industries in the jurisdictions in which Aegon
operates;
- Standard setting initiatives of supranational standard setting
bodies such as the Financial Stability Board and the International
Association of Insurance Supervisors or changes to such standards
that may have an impact on regional (such as EU), national or US
federal or state level financial regulation or the application
thereof to Aegon, including the designation of Aegon by the
Financial Stability Board as a Global Systemically Important
Insurer (G-SII); and
- Changes in accounting regulations and policies or a change by
Aegon in applying such regulations and policies, voluntarily or
otherwise, which may affect Aegon’s reported results, shareholders’
equity or regulatory capital adequacy levels.
Further details of potential risks and uncertainties affecting
Aegon are described in its filings with the Netherlands Authority
for the Financial Markets and the US Securities and Exchange
Commission, including the Annual Report. These forward-looking
statements speak only as of the date of this document. Except as
required by any applicable law or regulation, Aegon expressly
disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any
updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained
herein to reflect any change in Aegon’s expectations with regard
thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on
which any such statement is based.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201028006322/en/
Media relations Dick Schiethart +31(0) 70 344 8821
dick.schiethart@aegon.com
Investor relations Jan Willem Weidema +31(0) 70 344 8028
janwillem.weidema@aegon.com
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