14. Assets and liabilities in disposal groups held for sale, as well as discontinued operations

Assets and liabilities held for sale

Non-current assets and liabilities are classified as held for sale if it is highly probable that they will be realised through sale rather than continued use.

These assets or disposal groups are recognised at the lower of their carrying amounts or fair values less costs to sell. Any impairment loss of a disposal group is firstly allocated to goodwill and then to the remaining assets and liabilities on a proportional basis. No loss is allocated to financial assets, deferred tax assets, assets in connection with employee benefits or investment property that continues to be measured based on the Group’s other accounting policies. Impairment losses on the first-time classification as held for sale and any subsequent impairment losses are recognised in profit or loss.

Intangible assets held for sale and property, plant and equipment are no longer amortised or depreciated. Investments recognised using the equity method are no longer equity-accounted.

On 16 May 2017, the sale of the 99.7 per cent holding in the Group company UNIQA Assicurazioni S.p.A. (Italian Group) was closed. Assets and liabilities that were recorded under the item “Assets and liabilities in disposal groups held for sale” up until the closing were derecognised accordingly.

Following the closing of the sale of Medial Beteiligungs-Gesellschaft m.b.H on 15 January 2018, the items previously reported under assets in disposal groups held for sale were derecognised. The carrying amount of investments accounted for using the equity method as at 31 December 2017 amounted to €9,289 thousand.

Since the third quarter of 2018, sales talks have been held on the sale of 19 commercial properties. This is a portfolio of specialist stores and shopping centres in Austria. These have therefore been reported under assets in disposal groups held for sale (health and life business). As at 31 December 2018, there are still eight properties with a carrying amount of €28,976 thousand in the portfolio (in life business), the deferred tax liabilities amount to €1,088 thousand.

Discontinued operations

A discontinued operation is a part of the Group that has either been sold or has been categorised as held for sale, and which

• represents a major line of business or a geographical area of operations,
• is part of a single coordinated plan to dispose of a separate, major line of business or geographical area of operations, or
• is a subsidiary acquired exclusively with a view to resale.

The entity is classified as a discontinued operation when the aforementioned criteria are fulfilled.

If an operation is classified as a discontinued operation, the consolidated statement of comprehensive income as well as the data relating to it for the comparative year is adjusted so that it were as if the operation had been discontinued from the start of the comparative year.

Due to contractual arrangements with the purchaser in the course of the sale of the Italian Group, UNIQA only has a right to the profit of the first quarter of 2017.