In France, comparable trends to previous quarters were accentuated in the third quarter of 2006: a strong position of life insurance and financial services businesses, moderate growth in individual health and the gradual recovery of growth in non-life insurance.

Life insurance growth in the first nine months of 2006 was 14 percent. In a context of a slowing market, AGF continues to outperform its peers: with business growth in Q3 alone over eleven percent. This growth is sustained, in particular, by the good performances of independent distribution and the commercial dynamism of AGF FinanceConseil.

Unit-linked products, as for the first half, account for 55 percent of the business in the nine months to September30, a remarkable stability at a very satisfactory level despite the turbulence on equity markets at the beginning of the summer.

Q3 was also marked by the launch of the Fourgous sales operations. Unlike other companies, AGF does not take these transfers into account in premium income. The first results of these operations are very satisfactory. Transfers to the end of September already total 256 million euros, representing the equivalent of eight percent of premium income generated.

In addition, nearly 35 percent of transfers are to unit-linked products, which clearly has a favorable impact on the value of the portfolio. Finally the good performance of asset management should be emphasized with inflows, excluding insurance products, of nearly four billion euros, up by 17 percent, as well as the development impetus in selling lending products (up 30 percent).

Growth in individual health insurance business is satisfactory (up four percent). This improvement is mainly due to the success of the new range of products and the first impacts of new loyalty initiatives. On the other hand, group pension businesses, which are by nature more volatile, posted a nine percent reduction in the third quarter. Group health insurance business in the first nine months was stable.

AGF's quarter-on-quarter growth in non-life insurance is once again close to that of the market. Excluding large accounts, the business grew by around two percent in Q3. This reduction in the trend is confirmed at the same time as AGF prepares the launch of its new auto product in mid-November.

Growth was maintained in the first nine months of 2006 (up eight percent) and remains very satisfactory in Q3 (up seven percent). These good performances confirm the favorable characteristic of the countries outside France in which AGF operates.

In the three Western European countries in which AGF operates, growth was particularly marked in life and health insurance in the Netherlands and in Spain with growth of over ten percent and seven percent respectively since the beginning of the year. Non-life insurance growth was also satisfying in both Belgium & Luxembourg (up three percent) and Spain (up seven percent).

AGF is also well positioned in South America, Africa and the Middle East with activity up 23 percent. These regions account for less than ten percent of the Group’s business.

Credit insurance registered a slight acceleration in its growth in Q3 (up six percent) due, in particular, to emerging countries and the United States but also to the healthy state of businesses in France and Italy that compensate for a slight slowdown of business in the United Kingdom.

On the other hand, Assistance and Travel Insurance posted a slight slowdown in their growth (up three percent), taking into account the particularly high comparative base for Q3 2005. The outlook for global tourism however remains good and Mondial Assistance continues its policy of major product innovation and development of its distribution.


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