After opening the year at €7.83 on 2 January 2015, UNIQA shares reached their low for the year of €7.04 already on 28 January 2015. In the subsequent months though the price bounced back, and on 22 May 2015 reached a high for the year of €9.41. After this, the price fluctuated for some time in the €8 to €9 range, before falling back below €8 in the autumn. At the end of 2015, UNIQA shares stood at €7.53. The UNIQA share price also fell in the first weeks of 2016 in sync with the general decline in insurance share values across Europe and at 11 February stood at just €5.04. On 18 March 2016, the share price was back at the €6.50 mark.
Dividend distribution
One of our concerns is to make sure that the shareholders in UNIQA participate in the success of the business to an appropriate extent. We have been targeting a dividend distribution for 2015 ranging between 40 and 50 per cent of the consolidated profit. On the basis of the separate financial statements of UNIQA Insurance Group AG, the Management Board will therefore propose to the Annual General Meeting the payment of a dividend of 47 cents per dividend-bearing share for the 2015 financial year. This means a dividend payment of €145 million, or 44 per cent of consolidated profit.
Despite planned investments of around €500 million over the next ten years and the challenges associated with low interest rates, UNIQA plans to continuously increase annual dividend payments per share over the coming years as part of a progressive dividend policy.
