AEGON Puts Corporate Governance Measure To Vote

NU Online News Service, March 20, 2003, 3:44 p.m. EST – AEGON N.V., The Hague, Netherlands, says it is asking shareholders to approve a measure that would give owners of its common stock more clout in ordinary shareholder votes.

Vereniging AEGON, an association descended from AGO, a Dutch mutual insurer that helped create AEGON, still controls 33% of AEGON’s voting power. The association gets some of its voting power from preferred stock that provides 2.08 votes per share, AEGON says.

The new measure would reduce the association’s voting power to one vote per preferred share, except in votes involving unsolicited takeover offers and other “special causes,” AEGON says.