Significant events after the reporting date
On 7 February 2020, UNIQA Österreich Versicherungen AG signed a purchase agreement with AXA S.A. and Société Beaujon for the acquisition of shares in the AXA subsidiaries and branches in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The purchase price is around €1 billion. The objects of purchase are life and non-life insurance companies, including their branches, as well as securities companies, pension funds and service companies of the AXA Group in the aforementioned countries. This expansion in the growth region of Central and Eastern Europe will see some five million customers move over to UNIQA. The completion of the transaction is subject to all necessary regulatory approvals.
On 19 February 2020, the Management Board and Supervisory Board of UNIQA Insurance Group AG decided to merge UNIQA International AG as the assigning company with UNIQA Österreich Versicherungen AG as the receiving company in the course of 2020, subject to obtaining all regulatory approvals. UNIQA Insurance Group AG will continue to exist as a holding company. However, it will transfer other functions and its holdings in certain service companies – in particular, all internal Group services – to UNIQA Österreich Versicherungen AG. UNIQA Insurance Group AG is to surrender its reinsurance licence and transfer its reinsurance business to UNIQA Österreich Versicherungen AG and UNIQA Re AG. This agreed restructuring will simplify and streamline the Group’s structure, enable more efficient Group management and a leaner management structure, and strengthen the customeroriented organisation.
Since early 2020, a massive spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) has been observed throughout Europe. Analyses have shown that for UNIQA, as an insurer in the potentially affected segments health insurance, life insurance and business interruption insurance, no significant effects are to be expected with regard to insurance benefits at this time. The overall economic effects of the spread of the coronavirus are still uncertain – in particular, the development of the capital markets as a whole is not yet foreseeable and the consequences for UNIQA cannot therefore be conclusively assessed at present.