Foreword by the CEO

Our challenge in 2024 was to stay focused and balance out our capacities wisely. Our ambition on the one hand involved achieving a really good result for you as our shareholders at the conclusion of our “UNIQA 3.0 – Seeding the Future” strategic programme, which was launched in 2021; together with our Supervisory Board, we have also invested a great deal of effort and attention into working on the next stage in our company’s history, i.e. “UNIQA 3.0 – Growing Impact (2025 – 2028)”.

So please allow me to split this brief letter into two sections.

1. UNIQA 3.0 – Seeding the Future (2021 – 2024)

These four years taught us that nothing is certain and anything is possible. Following the challenges of Covid-19, we were confronted in the East with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 – and with it, the reappearance of a dark spectre that had not cast its shadow over our more than 200-year company history for over 80 years: War in countries where we operate more than 8 decades after the end of the Second World War. In the West there is a new US government in Washington whose behaviour is upsetting geopolitical stability, making the previously unthinkable a reality and demanding decisive action from Europe.

• We are evaluating our risk scenarios even more carefully and at even shorter intervals. In our activities as a primary insurer and reinsurer as well as a healthcare provider and investor. Without being overly cautious or even anxious, but with a particularly high level of care.
• Our more than 17 million customers expect us to provide a first-class service, reliability, stability and confidence, especially in these times of uncertainty. “Living better together” is one thing that we truly believe in. We are therefore investing heavily in training for our approximately 15,000 employees; we have welcomed an average of 2,000 new colleagues annually over the last few years, and we are committed to preparing each of them thoroughly for the task ahead.
• We see real opportunities for profitable growth right now more than ever in times of major uncertainty. For organic growth as well as growth through acquisitions, both in the core business of insurance with our strong UNIQA brand and in the growth area of health with our young second brand Mavie. That is why we are investing a lot of time and money in developing our corporate culture even further: Our clear governance with robust risk management, clean processes and documented guidelines provide the framework for this, while internally we promote entrepreneurship, personal responsibility and togetherness.
• 2024 was the keystone for our previous strategic programme and was ultimately a very good financial year, despite the highest gross claims for storm-related benefits that we have ever paid to our customers: with growth in premiums written of 9 per cent –14 per cent in CEE and 5 per cent in Austria – earnings before taxes increased by just under 4 per cent to €442 million – the comparable figure for the previous year was €426 million. Our three regional segments contributed to this as planned: Austria with €313 million, International with €214 million and our reinsurance company UNIQA Re, with registered office in Zurich, with €80 million. The sum of these three segments is to be reduced by charges totalling €166 million from the Group Functions and Consolidation segments. Both the technical profitability of our portfolio and the investment result performed favourably:
• In the property and casualty insurance product group, which accounts for around 60 per cent of total premium volume and is therefore our largest business segment, the outstanding quality of our portfolio for private and corporate customers largely compensated for the losses after storms, which took on historic dimensions: These totalled €387 million on a gross basis, i.e. before relief from our external reinsurance partners, and were therefore around twice as high as in the 2023 financial year, which had already seen above-average losses. The expenses for the damage caused by “Storm Boris” in mid-September alone are reflected in the gross results of our companies in Austria, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania at €222 million.

Nevertheless, the net combined ratio, i.e. the combined loss and cost ratio after reinsurance, was a solid 93.1 per cent, and was therefore only slightly above the previous year’s figure of 92.8 per cent. The impact of natural catastrophes accounts for 3.2 percentage points, of which “Boris” accounts for 1.9 percentage points or €85 million.

• Our second product group, personal insurance, showed an improved picture: On the one hand, our Contractual Service Margin (CSM) – the sum of our expected profits over the contract terms – increased by around €80 million to €5,346 million, while on the other, the combined sustainability ratio of our life and health insurance business improved to 77.8 per cent (after 69.1 per cent in 2023). Broken down by line of business, this was 100.5 per cent in health insurance, which is dominated by the large Austrian portfolio, and a significantly improved 65.6 per cent in life insurance. In the latter business segment, we have not yet been able to fully compensate for the high number of expiring portfolios in Austria with new business.
• At €750 million net, the net investment income was significantly higher than the previous year’s figure of €589 million, which was primarily due to a significant increase in current income, including from our investment in the STRABAG SE construction group. We made new investments of around €2.2 billion in fixed-income securities in 2024 and achieved a new money yield of 4.4 per cent. The average return on our assets was 2.9 per cent, an improvement of 0.1 percentage points on the previous year. Incidentally, around €2 billion of our assets are already classified as green and sustainable — a key element of our ESG goals and our climate transition plan, which we will continue to implement with utmost determination.
• Consolidated profit rose by just under 15 per cent to €348 million – including a minor effect of €2 million from the sale of our 75 per cent stake in the Russian joint venture “Raiffeisen Life”, which is reported under “Discontinued operations”. The dividend proposed to the Annual General Meeting is €0.60 per share, which corresponds to an increase of €0.03 per share compared to the previous year and a payout ratio of 53 per cent. With this we are fulfilling our promise in line with our strategy of an annually increasing dividend per share and a payout ratio of 50 to 60 per cent.

The return on risk-adjusted capital (RORAC) was 14.6 per cent, the return on equity (ROE) was 12.4 per cent and the regulatory solvency ratio in accordance with Solvency II was 264 per cent.

2. UNIQA 3.0 – Growing Impact (2025 – 2028)

Our new “UNIQA 3.0 – Growing Impact (2025 – 2028)” strategic programme, which we presented to the capital market in London in December 2024 and in Vienna in January 2025, is at first glance an evolutionary continuation of the previous programme, and does not therefore seem very spectacular. However, on second glance it is very much so.

• Firstly because in addition to our day-to-day business, we were engaged in an in-depth process throughout 2024 of continuous discussion of the major questions of our future strategy with our Supervisory Board on a chapter-by-chapter basis, involving issues such as sources of growth, the future for personal insurance, our group’s geographical footprint and health beyond insurance, subsequently refining this into a strategy that has withstood detailed scrutiny.
• Secondly because we have a clear picture of the areas that we want to improve: in the implementation of our plans and in their respective economic returns on the time axis. To be consistent in the things that we focus on and also the things that we will no longer invest in for the future. Following the successful sale of our Russian joint venture and based on careful analyses, we also decided to withdraw from Albania, North Macedonia and Kosovo. Despite the satisfactory growth and profitability of our local companies, we are selling our majority stake to our local Albanian co-shareholder after 18 years of market presence in these three countries, subject to official approvals. We will now be focusing instead on the remaining larger markets and entities in the CEE region. This concludes our geographical streamlining in Central and Eastern Europe and we are not seeking any further sales.
• The broad diversification of our company, which offers you as shareholders a high level of security, was very well received at the two Capital Market Days just mentioned. A broad diversification both ...

... in terms of premiums written (Austria with €4.5 billion or 57 per cent, CEE with €3.2 billion or 43 per cent) as well as ...

... in terms of yield (see point 1 above) as well as ...

... in relation to our three customer segments (private customers: €4.4 billion or 58 per cent, corporate customers: €2.2 billion or 29 per cent, banking customers: €1.0 billion or 13 per cent) as well as ...

... in relation to our three product groups (property and casualty insurance: €4.7 billion or 60 per cent, life insurance: €1.6 billion or 21 per cent, health insurance: €1.5 billion or 19 per cent) as well as ...

... in relation to our sales channels (exclusive sales: 45 per cent, broker sales: 33 per cent, bank sales: 15 per cent, digital and direct sales: 7 per cent).

Our young and high-potential healthcare business segment under the brand name Mavie will also make a significant contribution to diversification over the long term. Four years after launching, we are already the leading provider of occupational healthcare in Austria as well as the market leader in private 24/7 care at home and – in addition to investing around €265 million in our Austrian hospital group with facilities in Vienna, Graz, Salzburg and Wörgl – are also focusing on telemedicine, one of the key technologies in European healthcare of the future.

To offer our customers growing added value, i.e. more relevance and more “impact” in their lives based on excellent service quality will bring UNIQA average growth in premiums written of at least 5 per cent over each of the next four years. Net income should increase by an average of at least 6 per cent per year with an ROE of 12 per cent or more. This will allow us to propose an annually increasing dividend per share to the Annual General Meeting, with an unchanged payout ratio of 50 to 60 per cent.

Dear ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, thank you very much for your trust in UNIQA and your interest in our group of companies! Despite all the geopolitical instability and with all due vigilance, we are delighted to be starting the first year of our new “UNIQA 3.0 – Growing Impact” strategic programme with a great deal of energy, passion and optimism, and hope to be able to give you a report on our development that meets all your expectations in around a year’s time!

Andreas Brandstetter
on behalf of the Management Board