- Premium revenues increased by 15.5% - lower benefits ratio
- OR almost doubled to €68.3 million
- Shareholder's equity strengthened by over €30 million
-Consolidated annual net profit ten times higher
- IAS ROE doubled to 11.2%
- Capital investments over €13.2 billion
- Positive developments in the divisions and international business

Premiums increasing substantially faster than benefits
The total retained, earned Group premium revenues increased by 15.5% to €2,778.6 million. (As a result of the IAS regulations the former AXA companies were only included in the second half of the year and savings premiums for unit and index-linked life insurance was not included in the premiums. When presented in line with HGB (Austrian Commercial Code) the premiums rose by 22.0% to €3,262.7 million

The retained consolidated insurance benefits rose dis-proportionally weaker compared with the premium revenues by 5.6% to €2,484.1 million. Based on this trend we were again able to improve the benefits ratio – from 103.9% in 2001 to 97.8% in 2002 and to 89.4% in 2003.

Costs under control
The consolidated expenses for the insurance operations increased primarily as the result of taking over the AXA companies, including FinanceLife and the worsening of the reinsurance conditions to €601.6 million (previous year: 472.4). When these special effects are disregarded the total cost ratio remained almost unchanged at 19.7%, when included the cost ratio rose to 21.6%.

OR almost doubled, shareholder's equity strengthened by over €30 million, consolitated net profit at 46.2 million
In spite of the difficult conditions of the Austrian economy and uncertainties in the capital markets, the UNIQA Group succeeded in almost doubling its OR (operating results) in 2003 to €68.3 million compared with the previous year (€35.3 million). The international companies contributed €8.5 million or 12.5% to this result.
The contributions of the divisions to the OR were €26.8 million for health insurance, €26.4 million for life insurance and €13.4 million for property & casualty insurance.

The IAS shareholder's equity was increased by over €30 million during the past year to €540.5 million.

The consolidated net profit climbed from €3.6 million in 2002 to €46.2 million in the 2003 financial year. As a result the profit per share increased from €0.03 to €0.42.

The ROE in line with IAS more than doubled and reached 11.2% (2002: 5.1%).

Dividends 25% higher
The Management Board proposes a 25% increase in the dividend to €0.20 per share to the Annual General Meeting in Vienna on May 24.

Capital investments over €13.2 billion
Capital investments rose by 13.3% to €13,233.8 million.

The recorded value of increased assets was over €786.5 million for 2003, which corresponds to a performance of around 6.0%.

SEGMENTS
Life insurance business up by nearly 10%
The separate premium income from life insurance increased by 9.9% to €1,036.2 million. The international life insurance companies increased their share to 4.8% by doubling their premium income. In line with the IAS regulations the savings ratios from unit and index-linked life insurance totaling €102.3 million were not included in the premiums. 

At the same time retained life insurance benefits fell by 0.09% to €1,124.8 million.

Life insurance is the largest division of the UNIQA Group with a 37.3% share of total Group premiums. 

Increased growth in property and casualty insurance
In the operating insurance divisions the earned premiums for property and casualty insurance jumped by 32.5% to €1,026.8 million. The international share increased to 22.2%. In contrast the insurance benefits increased dis-proportionally lower by 21.7% to €716.2 million. The combined ratio fell by 103.5% in 2003 (previous year 109.3%).

In total the share of casualty insurance premiums was 36.9% of Group premiums.

The UNIQA Group achieved an increase of 20.9% in premium income in the vehicle insurance division in 2003, which is substantially higher than the increase in the new vehicles market of 7.7%. The reasons lie in the consistently continued reorganization policy.

Market leadership maintained in health insurance
In spite of the dominating market share of just under 50%, UNIQA again increased the earned premiums for health insurance in 2003 by 4.0% to €715.8 million, of which 9.1% came from international companies.

Health insurance contributes 25.8% to Group premiums.

Other countries
Growth course continues
The premiums produced outside Austria in 2003 rose by 38.9% to €342.2 million, whilst the insurance benefits increased by just 19.6%. (Here too in line with the IAS regulations, the former AXA companies in Hungary and Liechtenstein were only included for the second half of the year). The majority of the €342.2 million premiums, €226.5 million (+43.7%) came from the property and casualty insurance segment, followed by health insurance with €65.7 million (+2.7%) and life insurance with €50.0 million (+104.1%).

The international OR improved to €8.5 million (2002: €-9.8 million). Therefore the international companies contribute 12.5% to the total Group OR of €68.3 million.