The Netherlands-based insurance provider Aegon has completed the acquisition of Dutch life insurer Optas, after receiving approval from the regulator DNB and the Dutch competition authority, NMa.
Optas, which specializes in employee benefit products and services, will further strengthen Aegon’s position in the group pension market in the Netherlands. Optas’s extensive business relationships with companies and employees in the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam will allow Aegon to broaden its overall client base.
As a result of the deal, Optas will become a subsidiary of Aegon in the Netherlands. At the end of 2006, OPTAS had over 60,000 policyholders and total assets of E4.5 billion.
The transaction is thought to have only a slightly positive effect on Aegon’s earnings per share in 2007.