“The maintenance of an A-grading can be regarded very positively in an international comparison as well. I view this result as clear confirmation of our strategy”, explains Konstantin Klien, UNIQA’s CEO. “Mainly also because we have been able to maintain this rating despite massive acquisitions and strong capital market fluctuations resulting from the successful continuation of our programme for increasing earnings. In the future as well, we will be paying attention to the balance between expansion and earnings, so as to boost our profit even more.”

Standard & Poor’s cite the following essential rating factors:

-Improvement in technical earnings resulting from a consistent programme for increasing earnings
-The UNIQA group’s leading position on the Austrian market
-The positive development in the insurance business and successful reduction of expenses
-UNIQA is benefiting from the high degree of diversification in the various types of insurance and sales.

Standard & Poor’s view the continued dependence of the Austrian market critically and thus UNIQA’s increased involvement in Central and Eastern Europe as the strategically correct decision. Klien: “This year, too, we intend to continue with our programme to reduce costs and improve earnings at home and expand it to our sister companies abroad. We are going to continue to focus on the profitability of our involvement in any further acquisitions.”

The UNIQA Versicherungen AG is the only Austrian insurance company to subject itself voluntarily to Standard & Poor’s rating process on the basis of a detailed annual audit and therefore to have a rating of this kind of its own. The auditing process is much more extensive, intense and comprehensive than the “pi” ratings that are produced on the basis of general published information.