- Premium growth by more than one quarter in first three months of 2005
- 25-30% improvement in operating profit anticipated for current year
-  Continued expansion in Central and Eastern Europe

In the first quarter of 2005the UNIQA Group succeeded in increasing its fully consolidated earned premiums by 28.8% to € 1,086.9 million, including the savings element from unit-linked life insurance (€ 61.5 million).

Through UNIQA’s greater involvement in Eastern and Western Europe,  the premiums gained abroad were able to be increased enormously by 184.6% to a current € 286.2 million. On the domestic market in Austria the UNIQA Group chalked up earned premiums of € 800.7 million (+7.7%).

The greatest growth in the first three months of 2005 was accounted for by life insurance with +38.1%. Earned premiums reached € 501.1 million, including the savings element from unit-linked life insurance (€ 61.5 million). In damage and accident insurance, business increased by 33.2% to € 396.2 million. The group health insurance premiums rose by 3.2% to € 189.7 million.

The UNIQA Group’s  complete quarterly report is going to be published on 31.5.2005.

Further improvement in operating profit anticipated in 2005
For the current year, as long as the capital markets at least continue to move sidewards and there are no extraordinary events as far as insurance is concerned, UNIQA is anticipating further growth of 25-30% of its operating profits to around € 150 million.

UNIQA CEO Konstantin Klien: “ On the technical side, it is our goal in 2005 and 2006 to safeguard the Group’s ROE to the extent of at least 15%.  This means that we head the field anyway when compared with companies in other European countries. Simultaneously, we are aiming at both premiums and operating profits of at least 30% from abroad.”

Further expansion of involvement in Central and Eastern Europe
UNIQA also plans to expand its market position in the Central European area further in the near future.

The takeover of 94% of the Raiffeisen Osiguranje in Bosnia and Herzegovina is about to take place and business is starting in the middle of this year in Slovenia in collaboration with the Raiffeisen Bank Group.

In the Eastern European countries in which the UNIQA Group is already represented, it is both planning to invest in the expansion of sales capacity and consider further acquisitions to round off its portfolio in 2005. “ We always examine take-over possibilities extremely carefully and only realise them if the profitability prospects are right. This of course goes also for Romania and Bulgaria, which are candidates for EU membership and which we regard as potential new markets,“ explained Klien.

Insurance product sales over bank counters are of particular strategic significance in the UNIQA Group’s advancement of its market position in Eastern Europe. Konstantin Klien: “UNIQA and Raiffeisen prefer to support each other mutually as partners in the fields of product development, sales and marketing in the setting of a Preferred Partnership in Eastern and Southern Europe as well. The successes and experiences we have had with the Raiffeisen Versicherung (Insurance Co.) in Austria, the promising collaboration that has started with the Raiffeisen network banks in Slovakia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, and the strong position of the Raiffeisen banks in the region form what is definitely a unique basis for future coverage of the emerging markets to the east, beyond the borders of the current EU.”