extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders in May, 2003. This qualified majority requirement was included in order to give AEGON protection against unfriendly actions by, for example, a hostile bidder. The effects of this qualified majority are mitigated by the fact that in practice nominations will in most cases not be binding, thus allowing the shareholders to decide on the nomination with a simple majority. The Supervisory Board and the Executive Board intend to evaluate the provisions in AEGON's Articles of Incorporation containing the qualified majority requirements in light of the provisions of the Dutch Corporate Governance Code. [IV.1.1; IV.3.9] AEGON has preferred shares class A and preferred shares class B, all of which are held by Vereniging AEGON. The preferred shares class A have been restructured in September 2002 and May 2003 with the effect that the capital contribution made on these shares is reflective of the market value of AEGON’s common shares at that time.  [IV.1.2] Currently, Vereniging AEGON holds 11,100,000 preferred shares class B, representing approximately 0.6% of voting shares under usual circumstances. The 1983 Merger Agreement (as amended) provides that additional preferred shares class B are to be issued by AEGON to Vereniging AEGON at the option of Vereniging AEGON in order to prevent Vereniging AEGON’s voting power from being diluted as a result of new issuances of common shares. In addition, AEGON and Vereniging AEGON have entered into a preferred shares voting rights agreement. Pursuant to this agreement, voting power attached to the preferred shares classes A and B is under normal circumstances limited to one vote per share. The preferred shares voting rights agreement allows Vereniging AEGON to exercise the full voting power on its preferred shares (approximately 2.09 votes per preferred share) in the event of a ‘special cause’ (as defined in the preferred shares voting rights agreement) for up to six months (as further discussed on page 143 and following).  [IV.1.2] As a result of the foregoing and certain qualified majorities specified in AEGON’s Articles of Incorporation, in the event of  a ‘special cause’ (as referred to above), for a period of six months Vereniging AEGON can effectively be in a position  to temporarily block any unfriendly actions by a hostile bidder or others. The Supervisory Board and the Executive Board  take the view that this arrangement is in accordance with the principles that the Dutch Corporate Governance Committee has recommended to the legislator to be taken into consideration when drafting a law on anti-takeover measures. [IV.1.1; IV.1.2; IV.3.9; Account of the Committee’s work] The Executive Board intends to make amendments to the Rules and Regulations of the Executive Board to the effect that in the event of a serious private bid for a business unit or a participating interest in excess of the threshold expected to be set in the Dutch Civil Code the Executive Board will make public its position on the bid and its reasons for its position. The Executive Board and the Supervisory Board will provide the General Meeting of Shareholders with all requested information, unless overriding interests of AEGON are better served by not providing the requested information. If such overriding interests are invoked, that will be substantiated.  [IV.3.5] All communications and filings are supervised by the Disclosure Committee instituted by AEGON in compliance with the United States’ Sarbanes-Oxley legislation. These communications will be made available on a separate part of AEGON’s website www.aegon.com.  [IV.3; IV.3.6] AEGON refrains from any actions that may jeopardize the independence of analysts in relation to the company. Other than factually, analysts’ reports and valuations (including earnings estimates) are not assessed, commented upon or corrected by AEGON in advance of their publication and AEGON pays no remuneration of whatever kind to any such analysts in the context of preparing such reports or the publication thereof.  [IV.3.2; IV.3.3] At the annual General Meeting of Shareholders in 2005, AEGON’s policy on profit appropriation (additions to reserves and on dividends) shall be dealt with and explained as a separate item on the agenda of the annual General Meeting of Shareholders. Also, a resolution to pay a final dividend shall be dealt with as a separate item.  [IV.1.4; IV.1.5] Release from liability of the members of the Executive Board for their management and of the members of the Supervisory Board for their supervision will be separately voted upon in the annual General Meeting of Shareholders. [IV.1.6] AEGON intends to continue its current practice providing for the determination of a registration date for the exercise of the voting rights and the rights relating to General Meetings of Shareholders. [IV.1.7] AEGON attaches high importance to fair disclosure of information to its stakeholders and the financial markets in all relevant jurisdictions. The company applies the rules and regulations dealing with disclosure set by the various regulators and the stock exchanges on which we are listed. Meetings with shareholders, analysts and investors and press conferences are webcast on AEGON’s website in real time so as to safeguard equal and timely access to information. Meetings will be announced by way of press releases. All presentations made on these occasions are posted on its website. In accordance with market practice, the company uses various press information services to distribute its press releases.  [IV.3; IV.3.1] [IV.1.3] AEGON GROUP ANNUAL REPORT 2003 68 PROVISION OF INFORMATION TO AND LOGISTICS OF THE GENERAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS DUTCH CORPORATE GOVERNANCE CODE