The domestic growth of fully consolidated earned premiums - 11.4% to € 2,715 million -    was markedly above the market average. Premiums abroad rose enormously  - by 71.4% to € 586.7 million.

Consolidated insurance benefits in self-retention increased by 22.1% to € 3,033.4 million. This was basically due to the rise in expenditure for premium refunds and latent profit-sharing as a consequence of increased earnings from assets in life insurance.

Total consolidated expenditure for the insurance business went up by 37.9% to€ 829.3 million.This was due to expansion of the circle of consolidation and unique special effects such as the increase in social outlay resulting from the lowering of the internal interest rate for calculating social capital. After the Combined Ratio had been adjusted according to the unique effects, it amounted to 20.2% for Austria and fell to 31.2% abroad in 2004 (2003: 31.3%). The adjusted total Combined Ratio of 22.1% was only just above the value for the previous year, which had been 20.9%.

The net profit for the year amounted, after an increase of 81.1%,  to € 101.8 million. The profit per share climbed as a result by 76.2% from 42 to 74 cents.

Gross ROE for the financial year 2004, according to IAS, was 15.7% (2003: 10.5%).

The shareholders’ equity was able to be vastly increased once more in 2004, from€ 210.8 million to € 860.2 million.

Capital investment  on the closing date was € 16.6 billion or 25.4% above the value for the previous year. Net returns on capital investments were able to be increased by 78.4% or€ 330.1 million to € 751.0 million.

Sectors
The earned premiums in damage and accident insurance were able to be increased by  35.8% to € 1,394.5 million. As a result of above-average growth outside Austria (+88.6%), the share of the revenue from abroad rose to 30.8% in this sector. The insurance benefits grew more slowly than the premiums, with an increase of 27.7%. The gross Combined Ratio was successfully reduced to 94.8% (2003: 99.7%).

Life insurance recorded a plus of 12.5% in earned premiums in 2004, bringing it up to€ 1,166.2 million. When the savings bonuses from unit-linked life insurance are taken into consideration, a growth rate of as much as 18.1% is the result. The share of the revenue from abroad in this sector rose as a consequence of over-proportional premium growth by 79.8% to 7.6%. Following greatly increased returns on capital investments (+109.3%), insurance benefits grew by 29.0% to € 1,450.6 million.

Earned premiums in health insurance increased moderately by 3.5% to € 741.2 million. The share of revenue from abroad rose slightly from 9.1 to 9.2%. Insurance benefits increased by 5.0% to € 674.7 million.