- Premiums increased by 30% - premiums abroad trebled in value
- Expenditure for claims and benefits rose underproportionally
- Combined ratio lowered
- Profit on ordinary activities of € 41,6 million according to plan

Premium volumes at home and abroad increased markedly
The UNIQA Group Austria continues to be successful and grow. In the first quarter of 2005, written premiums according to IAS rose markedly – by 28.2% to € 1 311.6 million – in comparison with the previous year. Including the savings share from unit- and index-linked life insurance of € 61.5 million, the Group’s premium volume of € 1 373.1 million is 30.5% above the previous year’s value. Domestic premiums rose by 7.1% to € 990.8 million. Premiums from the Central and Eastern European markets more than trebled (+201.7%), amounting to € 382.3 million.

In damage and accident insurance, UNIQA was able to increase written premiums in the first three months of 2005 by 34.2% to € 658.7 million. €423.4 million (+5.2%) was from Austria and € 235.3 million (+166.2%) from business abroad. In life insurance as well, growth continued unabatedly in the first quarter of the year. In this sector (including savings premiums from unit- and index-linked life insurance), UNIQA achieved a figure of € 517.4 million for the whole Group – a 39.7% increase in premium volumes.  At home – in the course of the prolonged great demand for retirement products – it was possible to raise written premiums by 11.1% to € 389.4 million. The 549.7% increase in premiums to € 128.0 million in the companies abroad may be attributed to Claris Vita’s first-time consolidation. Written premiums in health insurance amounted to € 177.0 million  (+5.6%) in the first quarter.

Claims and benefits expenditure rose underproportionally
Claims and benefit expenditure developed very well in the first quarter, compared with premiums, there being an underproportional rise of 16.5% to € 965.6 million. In damage and accident insurance, claim and benefit expenditure increased by 27.1% to € 266.9 million. Benefits (including changes in premium reserves) in life insurance were also markedly below the increase in premium volume, with an increase of 15.7% to € 521.7 million.  Health insurance benefits amounted to € 177.0 million in the first quarter (+5.6%).

Combined ratio lowered
Owing to the relatively slight increase in expenditure of 13.7% to € 202.7 million for the insurance business, it was possible to lower the combined ratio by more than 2% to 19.8% compared with the first quarter of 2004. The Group succeeded in reducing costs by 5.6% to € 140.4 million in Austria through consistent implementation of a programme for increasing profits and saving costs. Abroad, as well, the rise in costs of 112.1% to € 62.3 million remained markedly behind growth in premiums.

€ 17.684,8 million capital investments
The total capital investments of the UNIQA Group amounted to € 17.684.8 million on March 31, 2005, which was 27.9% more than the figure for 2004. The net yield from capital investments went down slightly to € 201.6 million owing to increased expenditure of 4.9% for currency safeguarding.

Profit on ordinary activities of € 41.6 million
The UNIQA Group’s profit before tax amounted to € 41.6 million in the first quarter of 2005. € 29.8 million of this came from companies in Austria and € 11.8 million from the markets in Central and Eastern Europe. If the capital markets at least continue to move sideways and no extraordinary events take place that could affect the technical side of the insurance business, UNIQA expects an approximate 25% increase in profit to € 150 million in 2005.