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Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
BRUSSELS—Ageas N.V. has speeded the sale of its European sovereign debt due to uncertainty about the stability of Europe’s financial markets, the Belgian insurer said Thursday.
Brussels-based Ageas, which was known as Fortis S.A./N.V. until a rebranding last month, said it has sold €4.8 billion ($6.04 billion) in government bonds issued by southern European countries since May 10.
The insurer said it sold Italian bonds valued at €2.1 billion ($2.64 billion), Greek bonds with a value of €1.7 billion ($2.14 billion), Portuguese bonds totaling about €900 million ($1.13 billion) and Spanish bonds with a value of €100 million ($125.7 million).
“At the end of last year, we decided to gradually reduce our exposure to southern European countries subject to opportunities and liquidity in the market,” Ageas CEO Bart De Smet said in a statement. “Due to increased market uncertainties, we chose to accelerate the rebalancing of our portfolio in the second quarter.”
Proceeds from the sales have been reinvested mostly in government bonds of Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands, Ageas said in the statement.
The “one-off negative impact” on profit from the sales is about €55 million ($69.2 million) to €65 million ($81.7 million), Ageas said. The loss of yield on the bonds that have been sold will be mitigated through “further rebalancing of the investment portfolio going forward,” according to the insurer.