Aegon

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Aegon N.V., the large Dutch insurance company that employs about 800 people in Baltimore, reported yesterday that its third-quarter profit surged 28.4 percent, driven by increasing sales of life insurance, accident and health insurance and banking products.The company, which for the first time included San Francisco-based Transamerica Financial Corp. in its results, made $438 million in the third quarter that ended Sept. 30, or 68 cents per share, compared with $341 million, or 59 cents a share, in the corresponding period last year.

Aegon NV, Europe's second-largest insurer, said yesterday that its net income rose 11.7 percent, fueled partly by its rapidly growing American operations, which are based in Baltimore.The Dutch company made $400 million, or 758 million guilders, in the fourth quarter, which ended Dec. 31, compared with net income of $358 million, or 707 million guilders.Net income for the full year increased 22.6 percent to $1.385 billion, or 2.748 billion guilders.Kees Storm, Aegon's executive board chairman, said the results "demonstrate the healthy earnings capacity of our existing units."

Aegon NV, the large Dutch insurance company that has its U.S. headquarters in Baltimore, is planning to pay $181.2 million to the chairman and chief executive officer of Transamerica Corp., the San Francisco insurer that Aegon is acquiring.Frank C. Herringer, the Transamerica CEO, would receive $145.8 million in previously vested stock options, Transamerica said yesterday.In addition, Herringer would get $35.4 million in incentive-plan payments and in unvested stock options that will become exercisable when Aegon's $10.8 billion purchase of Transamerica is completed.

Dutch insurer Aegon NV, which has its U.S. headquarters in Baltimore, said yesterday that its net income rose 16 percent in the third quarter, fueled by a strong performance in its U.S. operation.Aegon reported net income of $341 million for the third quarter, compared with net income of $294 million for the third quarter of 1997.The company made 59 cents a share in the three months that ended Sept. 30, up 15.9 percent from the 51 cents made in the 1997 quarter."It was a solid quarter, in line with analysts' and investors' expectations," said Jason Zucker, an analyst with Bear Stearns & Co. in New York.

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Aegon USA yesterday told employees that it will remain and expand in downtown Baltimore through 2002, but the company left open the possibility it might consolidate more than 1,000 workers outside Baltimore because of changes taking place in the insurance industry.In committing to the city, the nation's ninth-largest insurer will expand into a vacant, six-story office and warehouse building at 205 W. Centre St. once occupied by retailer Hochschild, Kohn & Co. and the Bank of Baltimore.As part of the move, the North American subsidiary of giant Dutch insurer Aegon N. V. will shift 300 employees in its Special Markets Group to the 225,000-square-foot building by May. "Our new office location provides us with the much-needed space to accommodate our current business as well as our future growth," said Bart Herbert Jr., president of Aegon USA's Special Markets Group, who broke the news to employees at the Belvedere Hotel yesterday morning.

Cendant Corp., the franchiser and direct marketer struggling to recover from accounting fraud, called off yesterday its $219 million acquisition of Providian Auto Home and Insurance Co., a subsidiary of Baltimore's Aegon USA.Cendant also filed a lawsuit against the company.The Parsippany, N.J., company said Providian's financial health worsened after Cendant agreed to acquire the insurer for cash in December.In a statement, Cendant said "several representations and covenants in the acquisition agreement had not been fulfilled and the conditions to closing had not been met."

Aegon N.V., the international insurance company that has its U.S. headquarters in Baltimore, said yesterday that fourth-quarter net income jumped 14.3 percent on brisk sales of life insurance and financial products.The insurer reported net income of $272 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 30, 1996. Revenue was $3.6 billion in the quarter, up 6.4 percent from the same period a year earlier."Our outlook for the year right now is an increase in earnings and earnings per share in the range of 12 percent," said Robert J. McGraw, treasurer of the company, which has $105 billion in assets and is based in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Aegon N.V., an international insurance company that has its U.S. headquarters in Baltimore, said its first-quarter profit soared by 24 percent, propelled by a savings boom in its Dutch home and by life and casualty insurance earnings in the United States.Aegon's business is improving so much that the company also boosted its profit-increase forecast for this year from 10 percent to 12 percent over last year to 15 percent.Besides better operating profits, favorable exchange rates and healthy stock markets also are helping, said Aegon Chairman Kees Storm.

Federal banking regulators have told Crofton-based Suburban Federal Savings Bank that it must be sold by Friday or face a possible government takeover. The 53-year-old thrift has been trying to recover from losses on soured real-estate loans. In documents filed last week, the Office of Thrift Supervision ordered Suburban to merge with another institution or accept "appointment of a conservator or receiver." If Suburban were to be seized, it would be the first bank to fail in Maryland since 1992, the tail end of the savings and loan crisis.

Dutch insurer Aegon NV is exploring a bid to buy the troubled Suburban Federal Savings Bank in Crofton as a way of becoming eligible for money from the federal bank bailout plan. The insurance giant, with North American headquarters in Baltimore, was among four insurance companies that applied Friday to the federal Office of Thrift Supervision to become owners of a savings institution as a way to get funding from the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program. OTS officials confirmed Aegon's interest in Suburban.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Aegon NV, the Dutch insurance company whose North American headquarters is in Baltimore, said yesterday that it has taken a 3 billion-euro ($3.7 billion) investment from the Dutch government to shore up its cash position in the face of the continuing global financial crisis. The company also said it expected to post a loss of about 350 million euros ($436 million) in the third quarter and canceled dividends and executive bonuses for the rest of the year. "We welcome this additional capital buffer that the Dutch state has provided ... in this time of uncertainty and unprecedented economic turmoil," chief executive Alex Wynaendts said in a statement.

Donald J. Shepard remembers taking over the reins of Dutch insurer Aegon NV during turbulent times for the insurance industry, which was suffering from high credit losses in the post 9/11 economy. Six years later, as he prepares to retire, the economy is in a mess again. This time, it's for different reasons - subprime mortgage problems. But despite beginning and ending his tenure as CEO in rocky economic times, Shepard said he feels he's left Aegon in better shape than he found it. "It's been a good time and we've continued to strengthen this company," he said in a phone interview from the Netherlands yesterday, as Aegon released earnings for the final time during his tenure.

Donald J. Shepard is the reason a major European insurer kept its North American headquarters in Baltimore. He lives in Baltimore, but he's the CEO of the Netherlands-based Aegon NV. So the announcement yesterday that Shepard plans to retire next year and pass the torch to current chief operating officer - and Dutch national - Alexander R. Wynaendts raised this question: Was Maryland about to lose an important international presence and the 1,000 or...

Dutch insurer Aegon NV, which runs its U.S. operations from Baltimore, continued an acquisition streak this month with the purchase of a pension-fund management company in Poland and the buyout of a life insurance and benefits-consulting company outside Chicago. Aegon has been expanding its global footprint in the past year in such markets as China and Mexico, and the company has up to $2.6 billion in available capital that could be used to make acquisitions. Chairman Donald J. Shepard has said he is continually looking for strategic acquisitions to enter or grow in a market, though a large-scale deal might not be in the offing.

NEW YORK -- Dutch insurer Aegon NV yesterday reported that its second-quarter profit fell 12 percent after gains from investments in equities, bonds and real estate declined. The company, which has its U.S. headquarters in Baltimore, said its net income dropped to 664 million euros ($855 million), or 34 cents a share, from 751 million euros, or 41 cents a share, for the second quarter of 2005, beating analysts' estimates of 518 million euros. "Competition continues to be tough in all markets," Chief Executive Officer Donald J. Shepard said in a telephone interview.

When Dutch insurer Aegon NV, which has its U.S. headquarters in Baltimore, ventured into China in mid-2003, the SARS virus was gripping the nation and Chinese authorities had begun to quarantine thousands of people. But rather than delay opening for business, the insurer unveiled a new product that would cover SARS-related deaths and medical expenses for a year. "We didn't sell a whole lot of policies, but it gave us a lot of interesting publicity in China," Aegon Chairman Donald J. Shepard said in an interview yesterday.

Bart Herbert Jr., co-founder of a Baltimore company that helps patients navigate medical care, died of brain cancer Thursday at his Ellicott City home. He was 50. Born in Ogden, Utah, Mr. Herbert graduated from the University of Utah in 1979. He received his Master of Business Administration degree from Emory University, and worked from 1981 to 2001 for AEGON -- moving in 1991 to Baltimore, where the Dutch insurance company's U.S. operations are based. Mr. Herbert was among the founders in 2001 of PinnacleCare, a company that helps clients manage medical bureaucracy, research new treatments and arrange appointments.

AS THE SUN glinted over the Miles River at 8:30 a.m. in St. Michaels, Tom Katana led 38 insurance executives in stretching, bending, making small circles with their outstretched arms and moving about. Then this group - accountants, portfolio managers, sales managers - split into teams and boarded six sailboats worth about $3 million. Few of them had ever sailed before. Failure, he had told them, "is an option" - if they don't work together. His philosophy, as he explained later: "Overwhelm them.