The Principal Financial Group Completes AXA Hong Kong Pension Business Acquisition

DES MOINES, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

The Principal Financial Group, Inc. PFG today announced the acquisition of AXA's Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) and Occupational Retirement Schemes Ordinance (ORSO) pension business in Hong Kong is complete.

On Nov. 7, 2014, The Principal^® announced a definitive agreement to acquire AXA's MPF and ORSO business in Hong Kong. The deal includes an exclusive 15-year distribution agreement to provide pension products through AXA's extensive agency network in Hong Kong.

With this acquisition, The Principal becomes the fifth largest MPF provider in the market, increasing assets under management of its Hong Kong pension business to more than US $6 billion. The transaction is expected to be accretive to EPS and ROE in the first full year.

"This acquisition further strengthens our position in one of the most attractive emerging retirement and long-term savings markets in the world," said Dan Houston, president and CEO of The Principal. "Between added scale and the exclusive distribution agreement, we are well positioned to accelerate growth of our mandatory and voluntary pension business in Hong Kong."

According to Luis Valdes, president and CEO of Principal International, "Making strategic acquisitions and establishing key relationships with marquee partners has been a successful strategy for us. Being able to extend our global pension, long-term savings, and asset management expertise to more clients in Hong Kong is another step toward strengthening our position in North Asia."

About the Principal Financial Group
The Principal Financial Group^® (The Principal^®)¹ is a global investment management leader offering retirement services, insurance solutions and asset management. The Principal offers businesses, individuals and institutional clients a wide range of financial products and services, including retirement, asset management and insurance through its diverse family of financial services companies. Founded in 1879 and a member of the FORTUNE 500^®, the Principal Financial Group has $539.9 billion in assets under management² and serves some 20.1 million customers worldwide from offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and the United States. Principal Financial Group, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PFG. For more information, visit www.principal.com.

About The AXA Group
The AXA Group is a worldwide leader in insurance and asset management, with 161,000 employees serving 103 million clients in 59 countries. In 2014, IFRS revenues amounted to Euro 92.0 billion and IFRS underlying earnings to Euro 5.1 billion. AXA had Euro 1,277 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2014.

The AXA ordinary share is listed on compartment A of Euronext Paris under the ticker symbol CS (ISN FR 0000120628 – Bloomberg: CS FP – Reuters: AXAF.PA). AXA's American Depository Share is also quoted on the OTC QX platform under the ticker symbol AXAHY.

The AXA Group is included in the main international SRI indexes, such as Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and FTSE4GOOD.

It is a founding member of the UN Environment Programme's Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) Principles for Sustainable Insurance and a signatory of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment.

¹ "The Principal Financial Group" and "The Principal" are registered service marks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., a member of the Principal Financial Group.
² As of June 30, 2015.

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