ICA Ahold breaks off talks with AEGON on ICA Banken

ICA Ahold breaks off talks with AEGON on ICA Banken ICA Ahold and the Dutch insurance company AEGON have broken off discussions on forming a joint venture involving ICA Banken, a subsidiary of ICA Ahold. In November ICA Ahold announced that preliminary talks had begun with AEGON. These negotiations have been halted now, because of divergent views on both the strategic direction for the bank, as well as the purchase price. "ICA Banken's core business is the bank's cards and a number of services designed to meet the everyday needs of our customers. ICA Banken already offers most of the borrowing, savings and payment products our customers require. We will continue to expand the range of products offered and fine-tune the quality of our current service concept," says Kenneth Bengtsson, CEO & President of ICA Ahold AB. The bank will continue to focus on providing financial services, which our customers require on a day-to-day basis. ICA Banken remains a wholly owned subsidiary of ICA Ahold AB. For further information, please contact: Anders Lönnebring, Media Relations Manager, ICA Handlarnas AB Tel. 08-585 509 08, 073-765 12 21 Bo Lagergren, Communications Manager, ICA Banken AB Tel. 08-585 509 21, 070-512 21 50 About ICA Ahold The ICA Group (ICA Ahold AB) is the leading retailing group in the Nordic region with 3,100 stores in Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. In addition, ICA Ahold and Statoil jointly own and operate 1,500 Statoil service stations across Scandinavia. ICA Ahold is owned by ICA Förbundet Invest AB (30%), Canica AS of Norway (20%) and Koninklijke Ahold N.V. of the Netherlands (50%). Through Koninklijke Ahold, the ICA Group is part of a worldwide retailing network. ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2003/01/20/20030120BIT00320/wkr0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2003/01/20/20030120BIT00320/wkr0002.pdf