2016 at a glance

UNIQA invests €500 million

At the beginning of 2016, we launched the largest programme of investment and innovation in the Company’s history: the aim is to adapt our processes and products to the changing needs and expectations of our customers in the context of digital transformation. Investments of around €500 million will be spread over several years, focusing principally on redesigning our business model and on essential modernisation of our IT systems to support this development.

€250 million supplementary capital bonds repaid

At the end of December 2016, we repaid two supplementary capital loans totalling €250 million.

Now only one direct insurer in Austria

In October 2016, we merged Raiffeisen Versicherung AG, FINANCE LIFE Lebensversicherung AG and Salzburger Landes-Versicherung AG with UNIQA Österreich Versicherungen AG. Since then, UNIQA Austria has been our sole direct insurer in the Austrian market, serving around 3.5 million customers – a market share of over 21 per cent.

UNIQA is getting trimmer

In addition to the merger of the four direct insurance businesses operating in Austria, we have created a functional group structure, and with that trimmed the number of board members from 22 to ten. By concentrating our activities in this way and creating group-wide areas of responsibility, we are making structural adjustments appropriate to the changing needs of our customers and to the demands of the market. Since June 2016, the essential core activities of the UNIQA Insurance Group AG have been led by three management boards rather than five as previously.

New start-up centre supports innovators

In summer 2017, we will open the Vienna Design Tower for innovative start-ups from all over the world. Successful applicants can use the “Accelerator Programme” devised by we-Xelerate for 100 days completely free and will have the chance to work together with large corporations, “incubators”, venture partners, investors and service providers to develop new digital business models.

UNIQA Privatstiftung increases UNIQA shareholdings to 49 per cent.

In December 2016, UNIQA Versicherungsverein Privatstiftung acquired 17.64 per cent of the equity in UNIQA from Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG, increasing its voting rights from 31.36 per cent to 49 per cent. RZB holdings have been reduced to 10.87 per cent; the syndicate agreement between the two groups of shareholders remains in place.

Concentration on core business

Disposal of investments in Austria

In August 2016, we withdrew from our financial investment of 13.22 per cent in Niederösterreichische Versicherung AG, achieving a capital gain before tax of around €37 million. Similarly, we are also disposing of our indirect holdings, totalling 11.35 per cent, in Casinos Austria Aktiengesellschaft, with an expected capital gain of around €47.6 million. Approvals for this transaction are expected in the first half of 2018 at the latest.

UNIQA sells Italian subsidiaries

To sharpen our focus on the core markets of Austria and Central and Eastern Europe, we are transferring our Italian companies to the Italian insurance group, Reale Mutua. Regulatory approvals for this transaction are expected in the first half of 2017. The sale has had a profound effect, particularly on UNIQA’s economic capital ratio, which improved significantly by around 35 percentage points.