UNIQA remains an attractive investment

You can rely on UNIQA. Despite rising inflation rates worldwide, trade policy conflicts and latent uncertainty in the markets, the company can once again present a solid business performance for 2019. With its excellent market position, robust capital base and growth potential, the Group has a strong foundation that continues to make it an attractive investment option.

Stock markets’ solid performance in 2019

The year 2019 began with a clear upward trend on the stock market during the first four months, which many interpreted as a reaction to the price corrections of the previous year. After a phase of random price fluctuations that lasted several months, the most important indices rose again strongly in the fourth quarter of 2019. Overall, this resulted in an extremely positive share performance on most stock exchanges in 2019, which was reflected in a 25.2 per cent increase of the MSCI World global equity index. This excellent performance was mainly due to the change in interest rate policy by the US Federal Reserve and the even more expansive policy of the European Central Bank (ECB). Especially in the last few months of the year, investors increasingly agreed that the expansionary monetary policy would probably continue for some time.

UNIQA share performance

In €

Despite this, several factors had a dampening effect on the market in 2019: the worldwide trade conflicts have left a clear mark on global trade data, which led to international forecasting institutes lowering their growth forecasts. The markets were also affected by a series of political uncertainties, ranging from the planned withdrawal of the UK from the EU (“Brexit”) and continuing crises in the Middle East to political and economic turbulences in several Latin American countries.

Nevertheless, prices rose particularly sharply in 2019, especially in the US, where the US Federal Reserve revised its policy of gradual interest rate hikes and switched to interest rate cuts instead. The S&P 500, the leading US index Dow Jones Industrial and the technology-oriented Nasdaq Composite Index all reached one record high after another in 2019, ending the year close to their respective highs. Signs of an easing in the global trade dispute further boosted share prices on the US stock exchanges, particularly in the last few weeks of the year.

In Europe, the continuity of the ECB’s expansionary monetary policy measures strengthened confidence in the stock market. Over the course of the year, repeated irritations due to the uncertainties surrounding Brexit have receded into the background, following the clear decision in the British parliamentary elections in December 2019. All in all, the Euro Stoxx 50 rose by 25.4 per cent in 2019. However, regional and local problems in individual emerging markets have resulted in a highly varied overall picture of the market development in this group of countries. In principle, the more expansive monetary policy and the prospect of continued low interest rates provided important support for this region. At the same time, however, the excellent development of the markets on the large, established stock exchanges has drawn the attention of investors to the traditional markets all the more. As a result, the overall rise in the emerging markets of 15.4 per cent – measured by the MSCI Emerging Markets Index – remained lower than could have been expected given the interest rate trend.

Shareholder structure

The Vienna Stock Exchange was able to achieve a significant price increase in 2019, with the leading index ATX up by 16.1 per cent. In contrast to many other stock exchanges, the year’s high already peaked on 18 April 2019 with an index level of over 3,300 points. This was followed by a marked correction, which can be explained partly by the fact that the Austrian industry is particularly exposed to the effects of trade conflicts, but partly also by domestic political turbulence. It was not until the fourth quarter of 2019 that a clear upward trend could be seen again, taking the ATX to a level of around 3,200 points by the end of the year. The increase in the ATX Total Return, which takes dividend payments into account, was significantly higher than the increase in the ATX: here the increase was 20.5 per cent in 2019.

UNIQA shares continue to produce attractive yields

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. In line with the general market trend, their price increased over the course of 2019. Starting the year at €7.84, the UNIQA share price reached an annual high of €9.56 on 23 April 2019. The share price subsequently fell to around €8.00, stabilised between €8.00 and €8.50 over the summer months and began to rise again from October onwards. The UNIQA share price ultimately closed out 2019 at €9.10, thus registering an increase of 16 per cent compared to the previous year. The benchmark index for the European insurance industry, the Euro Stoxx Insurance, rose by 24 per cent in the same period.

Changes in the UNIQA dividend

In € (indexed)

Shareholder structure nearly unchanged

The shareholder structure of the UNIQA Group continues to be stable: the core shareholder UNIQA Versicherungsverein Privatstiftung (Group) holds a total of 49.0 per cent of all 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 2.8 per cent of the UNIQA shares. The company’s portfolio of treasury shares remains unchanged at 0.7 per cent. The free float amounted to 36.6 per cent by the end of 2019, 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.

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 portion of the company’s profits. To this effect, dividend distributions have been raised consistently over recent years. The Supervisory Board reserves the right to review and/or approve the proposal for the appropriation of profit for 2019 submitted by the Management Board due to the COVID-19 crisis until further notice.

On-going 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 2019 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
Phone: (+43) 01 21175-3773
E-mail: investor.relations@uniqa.at