Janus Capital Group Inc. Announces Strategic Alliance With The Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company, Limited

Janus Capital Group Inc. (“JCG”) (NYSE: JNS) today announced that it has entered into a strategic alliance with The Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company, Limited (“Dai-ichi Life”) (TSE: 8750), the third largest life insurer in Japan. In connection with this transaction, Dai-ichi Life plans to acquire at least 15%, and no more than 20%, of JCG’s outstanding common shares through open market purchases and potentially through the exercise of conditional options issued to Dai-ichi Life by JCG.

As part of this alliance, Dai-ichi Life will support JCG’s distribution initiatives in Japan and plans to invest USD$2 billion of its general account assets with JCG, including seed capital for JCG investment strategies. Following Dai-ichi Life’s accumulation of at least 15% of JCG’s common shares outstanding, it is expected that an individual designated by Dai-ichi Life will be appointed to JCG’s Board of Directors.

“We are honored to partner with one of Japan’s financial services leaders and are very excited by this opportunity,” said Janus Chief Executive Officer Richard M. Weil. “Dai-ichi Life has a 110-year history of client service excellence, and our alliance represents a substantial leap forward in the development of our business in the Asia-Pacific region.”

“Janus is a powerful franchise in the largest asset management market in the world,” said Hideto Masaki, Representative Director and Deputy President of Dai-ichi Life. “We are confident in Janus’ quality and leadership, and we are very pleased to acquire a substantial stake in the future growth of the firm at a level that we believe offers significant upside.”

As part of the agreement, JCG sold Dai-ichi Life a series of conditional options to purchase, in aggregate, up to 14,000,000 shares of JCG’s common stock. In the event that all or a portion of the conditional options are exercised, JCG intends to use the proceeds to repurchase JCG common shares to offset resulting dilution. The repurchase of common shares will be at JCG’s discretion, subject to market and business conditions.

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