Course set for restructuring
In a meeting on 22.6.1999 the Supervisory Board of BARC Versicherungs-Holding set the course for restructuring the group. It also agreed to proposals for a harmonized presence on the market, which will be put before Extraordinary General Meetings of BARC Versicherungs-Holding AG and its subsidiaries for approval. Accordingly, the brand UNIQA (pronounced “unika”) should be applied universally – not just as the new name of the holding company, but as a unified brand name for both the core operating insurance companies. This means that the previous names "Bundesländer" and "Austria-Collegialität" will be replaced by "UNIQA".

The aim of this measure is to create a strong joint identity and a new, clearly defined position on the insurance market

Better cards in the competitive game
"We did not decide lightly to part from these two names, so full of tradition and success in the insurance business. But we are sure that swith the unified presence on the market of UNIQA we shall hold the better cards in the ever tougher competition in the insurance market on the European level,” said Chairman Schimetschek at a press conference when the annual results were presented on Wednesday 23.6.1999. “For us UNIQA is not only a name but also a promise and a programme. It is a promise of quality unique in Austria. We will meet this promise with products and services that are radically aimed at the individual needs of people at the beginning of the new millennium and put into question the old, traditional habits in the field of insurance,” said Schimetschek.

A programme for the next millennium
Today UNIQA, within the entire BARC Versicherungs-Holding, represents a programme for the future, aimed at requirements after the turn of the millennium. This future-oriented programme also includes intensive training of all staff, the development of new products and services and an innovative way of observing the market and consumer needs. It also entails the biggest study ever carried out on future expectations of Austrians, with the name “Project UNIQA”, which will be carried out as an anonymous survey covering all Austrian households.

The name UNIQA is the result of thorough market research with the aid of an international agency specialising in corporate identities. The decision on the name was taken after extensive multistage market studies at home and abroad, after consumer surveys and also on the basis of a staff survey. In the course of the current year – the precise date has still to be fixed, UNIQA will be used as follows: 

• The future parent company will be called "UNIQA Versicherungen AG" and will primarily be used as an identity for the stock exchange.
• The future non-life insurer will be "UNIQA Sachversicherung AG" .
• The future insurer for life, sickness and accidents will be "UNIQA Personenversicherung AG".
• For the public, both will be communicated as the brand “UNIQA”. The distinction between life and non-life insurance corresponds to the European trend and for financial and juridical reasons.
• The Raiffeisen-Versicherung, the Salzburger Landes-Versicherung and theCollegialität-Versicherung will retain their independent identities to the outside world, but will document their belonging to the Group  with the phrase “a company of the UNIQA Group Austria”.
• The new brand strategy will not be applied to foreign subsidiaries before the year 2000.

Stock exchange listing
Further proposals of the General Meetings in September envisage the parent company, UNIQA Versicherungen AG, replacing the Bundesländer AG. Thus this holding company will be the only member of the Group to be listed on the stock exchange. As already announced, subsequently preference shares and participation certificates are to be converted to ordinary shares in the new company.

In terms of content, insurance policies will remain unaffected by the restructuring, changes of names and the new appearance on the market. The conversion of policies of the former BUNDESLÄNDER and Austria-Collegialität to the new insurers will also take place in autumn 1999 and impose no burden on policy-holders.