€5,276 million of premiums

With €5,276 million of premiums, written including the savings portion of premiums from unit-linked and index-linked life insurance, UNIQA is one of the leading insurance groups in Central and Eastern Europe. The savings portion of premiums from unit-linked and index-linked life insurance amounting to €748 million is, in accordance with FAS 97 (US-GAAP), balanced out by the changes in the actuarial provision. The premium volume excluding the savings portion from the unit-linked and indexlinked life insurance amounts to €4,528 million.

UNIQA in Europe

The UNIQA Group offers its products and services through all distribution channels (salaried sales force, GeneralAgencies, brokers, banks and direct sales). UNIQA is active in all types of insurance and operates its direct insurance business in Austria through UNIQA Personenversicherung AG, UNIQA Sachversicherung AG, Raiffeisen Versicherung AG, FINANCE LIFE Lebensversicherung AG, Salzburger Landes-Versicherung AG and CALL DIRECT Versicherung AG.

The listed Group holding company, UNIQA Versicherungen AG, is responsible for Group management, operates the indirect insurance business and is the central reinsurer for the Group’s Austrian operational companies. In addition, it carries out numerous service functions for the Austrian and international insurance subsidiaries, in order to best take advantage of synergy effects within all the Group companies, and to consistently implement the Group’s long-term corporate strategy. UNIQA Re AG has its headquarters in Zurich and is responsible for reinsuring the Group’s international operational companies. In order to achieve maximum synergy effects, the international activities of the UNIQA Group are managed centrally through Competence Centres as well as the Central Services, and UNIQA International Versicherungs-Holding GmbH is responsible for ongoing monitoring and analysis of the international target markets for acquisitions as well as for the integration of acquisitions into the Group.

Investments expanded in the Ukraine and Bulgaria

At the end of 2007, UNIQA decided to expand its investment in the Ukrainian company Credo-Classic from 35.3% to 61.0%, thereby taking over a majority interest in the company. A further expansion of the investment is planned over the medium term. Credo-Classic is the sixth-largest property insurance company in the Ukraine – a market with some of the best prospects and fastest growth rates in Eastern Europe with a population of over 45 million. UNIQA is active in the life insurance business in the Ukraine with UNIQA LIFE and operates a cooperation with the Raiffeisen Bank Aval within the framework of the Preferred Partnership.

Already at the start of 2007, UNIQA strengthened its commitment in Bulgaria and increased its investment in the Vitosha Group to 62.5%. At the same time, the companies were renamed to UNIQA and the cooperation with Raiffeisen banks in Bulgaria was further intensified.

Market entrance in Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo

In December 2007, UNIQA decided to take over 45.6% of the Albanian SIGAL Group. With a market share exceeding 28%, SIGAL is the largest insurance company in Albania and also has a corresponding market presence in Macedonia and Kosovo through subsidiaries and branches. UNIQA has already been cooperating with SIGAL since March 2007, and obtained, at the start of the cooperation, a contractually fixed option to acquire a majority by 2010.

Within the framework of the cooperation, the first jointly developed products in the area of life and health insurance have already been successfully positioned on the market. The exchange of know-how should be further intensified in the future.

Founding of a property insurance company in Serbia

In 2007, UNIQA was the first insurance company in Serbia to complete the separation of product lines and founded its own specialised company for property insurance. Since the start of July 2007, UNIQA neživotno osiguranje, with its head office in Belgrade, has also offered motor insurance on the Serbian market. The experience of the entire UNIQA Group was utilised in the product design, marketing and sales measures.

In this way, the UNIQA Group has expanded its presence in Eastern and south-eastern Europe during 2007, and the Group is now active in a total of 20 European insurance markets.

Companies included in the IFRS consolidated financial statements

Along with UNIQA Versicherungen AG, the 2007 consolidated financial statements of the UNIQA Group include 35 domestic and 65 foreign companies. A total of 50 affiliated companies whose influence on an accurate presentation of the actual financial status of the assets, financial position and profitability was insignificant were not included in the consolidated financial statements. In addition, we included 14 domestic and two foreign companies as associates according to the equity accounting method. Ten associates were of minor importance, and their shares are recognised at market value.

The scope of consolidation of the UNIQA Group was expanded in the 2nd quarter of 2007, with the Serbian company UNIQA neživotno osiguranje a.d.o. and in the 4th quarter with UNIQA neživotno osiguranje a.d. in Montenegro, which were fully consolidated for the first time. The shares in the insurance holding company SIGAL Holding sH.A. in Albania were recognised under other shareholdings.

Details on the consolidated and associated companies are contained in the corresponding overview in the Group notes. The accounting and valuation methods used, as well as the changes in the scope of consolidation, are also explained in the Group notes.

Risk report

The comprehensive risk report of the UNIQA Group is in the 2007 Group notes (cf. Group notes).

UNIQA Group business development

The following comments to the business development are divided into two sections. The section “Group business development” describes the business performance from the perspective of the Group with fully consolidated amounts. Fully consolidated amounts are also used in the Group management report for reporting on the development of the business lines of “property and casualty insurance”, “life insurance” and “health insurance”.