You can rely on UNIQA

Despite rising inflation rates worldwide, trade conflicts and latent market uncertainty, UNIQA once again showed good business performance for 2018 and can raise its proposed dividend to €0.53 per share. The company’s solid foundations – as evident in its excellent market position, robust capital base and growth potential – continue to make it an attractive investment option.

Stock market corrections around the world

The year 2018 was separated into three clearly discernible phases on the stock market: a period of about one month of sharply rising prices was followed by a longer period of high volatility before a market correction finally set in at the start of the fourth quarter. As a result, nearly all of the major stock market indices came in lower at the end of 2018 compared to 2017 reference values. MSCI World, for example, finished 10.4 per cent lower compared to the previous year.

Developments in the capital markets were thus generally in line with economic expectations, which were strongly optimistic at the start of the year with a prediction of solid corporate earnings. Rising inflation rates in the middle of the first quarter intensified concerns about significant interest rate hikes, provoking an early and noticeable correction. Interest rate trends remained an important factor in stock market performance over the rest of the year. Stock prices were also particularly influenced by ongoing trade policy disputes and regional developments, and in some cases left distinct impressions on the markets. From the European perspective, the continued absence of fixed and settled terms for “Brexit” represents an increasing burden.

Lacking the positive effects of tax relief but still confronted with the same global challenges, stock markets in Europe registered weaker performance in 2018 than those in the US: the Euro Stoxx 50 fell by 14.3 per cent, while the Dow Jones Industrial decreased by only 5.6 per cent. Concerns about higher interest rates also led to more sceptical assessments of emerging markets, as is evident in the 16.6 per cent fall in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. Stock markets in Central and Eastern Europe performed somewhat better: the Eastern Europe CECE index declined by 11.1 per cent.

In line with global share price trends, the Vienna Stock Exchange began 2018 with momentum and achieved its highest value of the decade on 23 January 2018 with the ATX at 3,688.78 points. Stock price performance on the Vienna Stock Exchange was consequently marked by concerns about trade policy disputes in particular since a good number of Austrian companies are distinctly exposed here on account of their high export ratio. Following a moderate decline in the second quarter and a slight increase in the third quarter, the ATX ended the final quarter significantly down, closing the year at 2,745.78 points. The index thus fell 19.7 per cent compared to the previous year.

UNIQA share performance

In €

UNIQA shares continue to produce a dividend yield of more than 6 per cent

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. However, the share price declined during 2018, in line with the general market trend. Starting the year at €9.01, the UNIQA share price reached an annual high of €10.46 on 22 May 2018 but then experienced a marked decline to €7.80 on 2 July 2018. The share price subsequently stabilised, only occasionally moving outside the band between €8.00 and €8.50, then weakening somewhat towards the end of the year. The UNIQA share price ultimately closed out 2018 at €7.86, registering a decline of 10.9 per cent compared to the previous year. This puts the UNIQA share price only marginally below the benchmark index for the European insurance industry, the Euro Stoxx Insurance, which fell by 9.0 per cent in the same period. At the beginning of 2019, however, the UNIQA share price was able to recover rapidly and stood at €9.00 on 21 March 2019. This represents an increase of 14.5 per cent compared to the beginning of the year.

Shareholder structure remains unchanged

The shareholder structure of the UNIQA Group continues to be stable and unchanged at the end of 2018: the core shareholder UNIQA Versicherungsverein Privatstiftung (Group) holds a total of 49.0 per cent of 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 2018, and therefore represented more than one-third of total shares and a value of around €900 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

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 €0.53 per dividend-bearing share for the 2018 financial year. This means a dividend payment of around €163 million, or 66.9 per cent of consolidated profit. Compared to the previous year, therefore, the dividend has increased by 2 cents and by almost 4 per cent. Nevertheless, the economic capital ratio (ECR) remains at a very high level.

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.

Changes in the UNIQA dividend

In € (indexed)

Ongoing 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 2018 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