AXA Group

Portrait de Henri de Castries, Chairman of the Management Board

"AXA teams have achieved an excellent performance in 2006, contributing to the strong growth in all of our businesses - ahead of our Ambition 2012 targets - while building the future of the Group through offer innovation, distribution management and quality of service initiatives," said Henri de Castries, Chairman of AXA's Management Board.

"Through organic growth and acquisitions, the Group begins 2007 30% larger than a year ago, with increased diversification and stronger local franchises in a number of our key markets. In addition, we expect that our shareholders will also benefit from our continuing efforts to optimize the Group's capital management and to develop a state-of-the-art risk management culture, which should further reduce the volatility of future earnings."

"We expect 2007 to be another important year for AXA. Provided that the global economic environment remains favorable, we are confident, based on the strength of our operations, the quality of our people and the long term growth prospects of the financial protection business, that the Group is well positioned to meet the challenge of successfully integrating Winterthur while delivering another year of profitable growth."

"The Management Board will propose to the shareholders that up to 0.7 % of the share capital of AXA be granted to all employees in the form of allocations of free shares or of an enhanced shareplan, between 2007 and 2012, to strengthen the engagement of all employees on our Ambition 2012 plan."

Important note: the press release presents AXA's FY 2006 earnings. AXA's 2006 Balance Sheet including Winterthur PGAAP and European Embedded Value of the Life & Savings segment including Winterthur will be released on April 10, 2007.
Winterthur FY2006 earnings are not included in AXA's 2006 consolidated earnings in 2006 due to the closing of the acquisition on December 22, 2006.