11.04.2003 |
Premiums In spite of a difficult year throughout the Austrian insurance industry the UNIQA Group was able to achieve growth in current premiums of 10.1% to EUR 2,199.4 million in 2002. Due to the strategic withdrawal of business with single premium policies and special products - the premiums in this segment declined by 52.9% to EUR 206.2 million. Using the internationally applied premium depiction which considers 10% of single premium policies the premium increase amounted to 8.3% or EUR 2,220 million.
Insurance benefits The premium volume of the past financial year is related to retained insurance benefits of EUR 2,351.9 million, which were 7.0% or EUR 177.4 million lower than in 2001.
Operating expenses UNIQA reduced the total consolidated operating expenses by 6.2% to EUR 472.4 million. The total cost ratio fell by 19.6% (2001: 20.7%) as a result of the consistent implementation of the cost reduction programme, thus saving a total of EUR 31 million over the past year.
Capital investments The total stock of capital investments in 2002 increased by 4.4% to EUR 11,682.1 million. Net revenue from capital investments decreased by EUR 184.1 million to EUR 475.9 million. The ordinary (net) investment income declined to EUR 612.7 million (from EUR 665.6 million in 2001). This was primarily the result of ending or selling high-interest bonds and loans that were re-invested at different conditions because of the situation on the capital markets. The continuing weak development in the share markets led to a lower value of the UNIQA Group share portfolio. Realised price losses in variable interest securities were for the most part offset by capital gains from the sale of fixed-interest securities.
Ordinary business activity and dividends In 2002, which was a very difficult year for the whole insurance industry, UNIQA achieved a result from ordinary business activity of EUR 35.3 million - EUR 10.1 million less than in 2001 (EUR 45.3 million). This decline was primarily due to the loss in capital income due to the continued difficult capital market environment and the extraordinary number of claims due to the floods in Austria and the Czech Republic. The considerable improvement in the actuarial results from the property and health insurance lines and the cost reductions already made were only able to even out the negative effects to a certain extent. Nevertheless, an unchanged dividend of 16% of the individual share certificates will be proposed to the Annual General Meeting.
Purchase of AXA Österreich In its meeting on 10.4.2003 the Supervisory Board of UNIQA Versicherungen AG approved the purchase of 100% of the share capital of AXA Konzern Aktiengesellschaft, Vienna, by Austria Versicherungsverein auf Gegenseitigkeit and Vulcania Holding GmbH . The Supervisory Board also agreed to integrate AXA Österreich into UNIQA in the course of the year 2003. Special project teams will work intensively on the preparatory work. The transfer contracts will be submitted to the UNIQA Supervisory Board for approval in June.
Extension of the share repurchase programme On April 10th, 2003, the Supervisory Board of UNIQA Versicherungen AG approved a formal request to the Annual General Meeting on May 19th, 2003, to extend the authorisation for repurchase of own shares by 18 months beyond June 20th, 2003.
Vienna, 11. April 2003