14.11.2008 |
Not for publication in the US, Canada, Australia and Japan. This is not an offer nor an invitation to buy securities.
Subscription price for 11,895,192 new shares set at € 15.50 each.
On 29 October 2008, with the consent of the Supervisory Board, the Management Board of UNIQA Versicherungen AG, under partial utilisation of the authorised capital (of up to € 50,000,000) stipulated in the company's articles of association, resolved to increase the company's ordinary capital by issuing up to 11,895,192 new registered voting shares, subject to compliance with the statutory subscription right of the shareholders.
After expiry of the subscription deadline today, the Management Board set the scope of the capital increase at 11,895,192 new shares and the final subscription price for these shares at € 15.50 per new share. All of the new shares offered were therefore successfully placed within the subscription period. The capital increase consequently corresponds to a volume of around € 184 million. Existing shareholders had an exclusive subscription right in the ratio of 10:1 (existing shares: new shares). As agreed, non-exercised subscription rights for 1,538,517 new shares were taken up by the core shareholders of UNIQA Versicherungen AG. The proportion of core shareholders in the ordinary capital has therefore increased from 77.38% to 78.60%. The new shares are anticipated to be listed for official trading on the Vienna Stock Exchange (Prime Market segment) from 19 November 2008 and are fully entitled to dividends for financial year 2008. Payment and delivery are also anticipated to take place on 19 November.
By issuing of the new, voting, no-par-value registered shares at a proportional share in the ordinary capital of € 1 each, the ordinary capital of UNIQA Versicherungen AG will increase by 9.9%, from € 119,777,808 to € 131,673,000.
The purpose of the capital increase - the first since the founding of UNIQA Group Austria in November 1999 - is to offset the influence of the acquisition of Romanian insurance company UNITA on capital resources. Several days ago, UNIQA Group Austria acquired 100% of the share capital of the fourth-largest Romanian property insurer. UNITA achieved a premium volume of around € 142 million in 2007 and has a market share of approx. 6.5% in Romania.
Vienna, 14. November 2008