UNIQA has subsidiaries in 15 countries in the CEE region, operating around 1,450 service centres. Slovenia is served from Austria. We are the market leader in Albania, the number two in Ukraine, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, and are among the top five in four other markets – Slovakia, Serbia, Macedonia and Romania. We also cooperate with our partner Raiffeisen in CEE. The preferred partnership agreement we entered into in June allows us to work together with the subsidiaries of Raiffeisen Bank International, which have more than 3,000 branches and a total of more than 14 million customers, in 14 of our markets. We have acquired the Baloise Group’s insurance companies in Croatia and Serbia in order to strengthen our market presence in Southeastern Europe.
We are pursuing a unified brand strategy in the CEE region. We operate in twelve countries under the UNIQA brand. In Albania and Kosovo, we use the “Sigal UNIQA Group Austria” brand. In Russia, we use solely bank distribution and operate under the “Raiffeisen Life” brand.
Growth potential in CEE
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Profitable growth in Central and Eastern Europe |
Our core markets in the CEE region continue to offer major growth potential. A competitive export industry, flexible labour markets, investment-friendly tax and wage systems, low labour costs and skilled employees ensure economic growth that will outpace that of Western Europe in the long term.
In addition, there is a significant need to catch up with regard to insurance products. This becomes apparent when you compare per-capita spending in this area, or the insurance density, as it is called. Whereas an Austrian invests an average of € 1,925 annually in insurance security, the corresponding per-capita spend on coverage in Albania is a meagre € 20. It is € 45 in Ukraine and € 270 in Hungary. Although conditions are challenging in some countries, such as Ukraine and Romania, we are convinced of the importance of standing by our customers and employees especially in difficult times. We see the CEE economic area with its population of around 300 million as our natural growth region not only for the next five years, but for the next 50 years.
