UNIQA outperforms the European insurance industry

UNIQA’s solid business performance over the past year allows a proposed additional dividend increase to 51 cents per share. UNIQA is also an interesting investment option in other ways, with a strong brand, good market positioning – particularly in health insurance in Austria – and very solid capital resources.

Stock markets on the rise

2017 was characterised by steady upward movement in share prices on the stock exchanges. Optimistic business forecasts and an interest rate environment that remains relaxed boosted market sentiment and ensured historic highs in many markets.

The Euro Stoxx 50 Index, for instance, managed to gain 6.5 per cent over the course of the year. Strong expansion in global trade and solid demand for European products were particular drivers for growth. Share prices in the emerging markets had an outstanding year overall in 2017, with the MSCI Emerging Market Index rising by 34.3 per cent. In Eastern Europe, the strong performance of the markets in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic was accompanied by sideways movement on the Russian stock market at a high level. The Eastern European CECE Index showed strong performance overall in 2017 with an increase of 28.7 per cent.

Prices on the Vienna Stock Exchange managed to stand out clearly from the Euro Stoxx 50 benchmark Index once again in 2017. With growth of 30.6 per cent for the ATX, the Austrian leading share index ranked as one of the world’s best share price barometers. The annual high was reached on 2 November 2017 at 3,445.23 points. The outstanding price performance on the Vienna Stock Exchange was fundamentally driven by strong economic stimuli from international demand and growing interest in investment in Austria. Both factors led to a significant increase in earnings for businesses. The higher levels of share prices should therefore be secured through corresponding company profits.

UNIQA share performance

In €

Attractive total shareholder return in 2017

Following the successful re-IPO in October 2013 and the resulting sharp increase in liquidity, UNIQA shares have also been listed on Austria’s leading ATX index since 2014. The share price also increased significantly during 2017 in line with general market developments. The share price was €9.01 at the start of the year, before reaching an annual low of €7.09 soon after, on 24 February 2017. After this point it more or less climbed steadily, finally reaching the annual high of €9.05 on 21 December 2017. The UNIQA share price ended the year just slightly below it, at €8.82. The upward trend continued at the start of 2018, and on 20 March 2018 the share price reached €9.28.

All in all, the UNIQA share price rose by 22.5 per cent over the course of 2017, while the benchmark index for the European insurance industry, the EURO STOXX Insurance, increased by 13.4 per cent in the same period. Taking the dividend into account, UNIQA shares achieved a total shareholder return of 28.9 per cent in 2017.

Shareholder structure remains stable

UNIQA’s shareholder structure remained unchanged at 2017 year-end: the core shareholder UNIQA Versicherungsverein Privatstiftung (Group) holds a total of 49.0 per cent of the UNIQA shares. Of these, 41.3 per cent belong to Austria Versicherungsverein Beteiligungs-Verwaltungs GmbH while UNIQA Versicherungsverein Privatstiftung holds 7.7 per cent. Raiffeisen Bank International AG is another core shareholder that holds 10.9 per cent of shares through RZB Versicherungsbeteiligung GmbH. Finally, the core shareholder Collegialität Versicherungsverein Privatstiftung holds 2.5 per cent of the UNIQA shares. The Company’s portfolio of treasury shares remains at 0.7 per cent. The free float amounted to 36.9 per cent by the end of 2017, and therefore represented more than one-third of total shares and a value of around €1 billion.

The shares of the three core shareholders are counted together as a result of their pooled voting rights. Reciprocal purchase option rights have also been agreed.

Shareholder structure

“As the number 1 health insurance company in Austria, UNIQA offers an attractive business mix, has a clear and progressive IT strategy and also features an attractive dividend yield of more than 6 per cent, in addition to a solvency ratio that is rising strongly towards 250 per cent.”

Frank Kopfinger, Deutsche Bank, 31 August 2017

Changes in the UNIQA dividend

In €

Progressive dividend policy

As we are aware of our responsibility for UNIQA’s long-term sustainable development and the capital invested by our shareholders, it is important to us that UNIQA shareholders enjoy a reasonable share in the Company’s profits. To this effect, dividend distributions have been raised consistently over recent years. On the basis of the separate financial statements of UNIQA Insurance Group AG, the Group Management Board will therefore propose to the Annual General Meeting payment of a recently increased dividend of 51 cents per dividend-bearing share for the 2017 financial year. This means a dividend payment of around €157 million, or 97 per cent of consolidated profit. Compared to the previous year, therefore, the dividends have increased by 2 cents, or more than 4 per cent. The economic capital ratio (ECR) is still operating at a very high level.

“UNIQA has confirmed its progressive dividend policy which will result in continuous dividend increases in absolute terms until 2020. The dividend yield is currently around 6 per cent. Our estimates for future payments assume a payout ratio of 70–75 per cent.”

Bernd Maurer, Raiffeisen Centrobank, 7. August 2017

Despite planned IT and additional investments of around €500 million by 2025 and the challenging economic environment, UNIQA plans to continuously increase annual dividend payments per share over the coming years as part of a progressive dividend policy.

In constant dialogue with analysts and investors

We attach the utmost importance to providing our shareholders as well as the entire financial community with regular, comprehensive and up-to-date information about the ongoing performance of the Company. To this end, the UNIQA management team was again available in 2017 to answer the questions of investors and analysts at numerous roadshows and banking conferences, and also held a large number of one-on-one meetings during the year. All reports and corporate information can also be accessed online at: www.uniqagroup.com. In addition, our investor relations team is always happy to answer individual questions:

UNIQA Insurance Group AG
Investor Relations
Untere Donaustrasse 21, 1029 Vienna, Austria
Tel.: (+43) 01 21175-3773
E-mail: investor.relations@uniqa.at