UNIQA Group Austria

- Recurring premiums grow significantly by 4.9% to €4,080 million, single premiums decreased

- Strong growth impulses from Eastern and South-Eastern Europe: Increasing of recurring premiums to 10.3%; contribution of 20.7% to Group premiums

- Clear reduction of claims and benefits ratio across all insurance lines 71.1%

- EGT at minus €181 million due to significant one-off effects of write-downs of Greek government bonds and investments in the repositioning of the Group at the end of September

- Results outlook for all of 2011 is unchanged at € -250 million to € -300 million

With a clear increase in recurring premiums of 4.9% while at the same time sinking the claims and benefits ratio across all insurance lines to 71.1%, the UNIQA Group showed a positive development in its core operational business after the first three quarters of 2011. Strong growth impulses (+10.3%) above all from Eastern and South Eastern Europe. The “write-down of Greece” and the one-off special expenditure for the restructuring of the UNIQA Group after three quarters however push down the profit on ordinary activities to € -181 million. As announced, these one-off effects will also negatively influence the annual result for 2011, which will be between € -250 million and € -300 million.

Pleasing increase in recurring premiums in all segments and regions
Overall, the recurring premiums written (including the savings portion from the premiums of unit- and index-linked life insurance) of € 4,080 million correspond to a growth across the Group of 4.9%. In Austria, the recurring premiums were increased by 2.7% to €2,694 million, while growth in international business increased by 9.7%, reaching €1,386 million. With an above-average growth of 10.3% reaching €826 million, the companies in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe gained market share in 13 of the 15 markets. In sum, UNIQA increased recurrent premiums earned in Western Europe by 8.7% to €560 million.

The total Group premium volume written (including single premiums in Life insurance) after nine months of the current year was €4,559 million. The 2.3% deterioration is solely a result of the smaller volume of single premium products.

In property and casualty insurance, the UNIQA Group was able to increase premiums by 5.7% to €2,120 million.

The premium volume written in health insurance increased in the first nine months of 2011 by 3.0% to €756 million.

In Austria, the recurring premiums from life insurance grew by 4.9% to €1,204 million, while single premiums declined by 38.3% to €480 million. The UNIQA Group’s entire premium volume written (recurring and single premiums) from Life insurance in the first nine months of the current year amounted to €1,683 million (-12.5%).

Claims and benefits ratio noticeably reduced
The total amount of insurance benefits decreased in the first three quarters of 2011 by 9.7% to €3,043 million. For this reason, the claims and benefits ratio sank across all insurance lines by 5.5 percentage points, to 71.1% (1–9/2010: 76.6%). The Combined Ratio in property and accident insurance was reduced to 98.6% (1-9/2010: 102.0%).

Cost performance reflects investments in the restructuring
Acquisition expenses rose in accordance with new business volume by 5.4% to €730 million. Other operating expenses for the insurance business, driven by the climbing social capital expenses (especially for severance payments) and additional one-time expenses associated with the Group’s restructuring, grew by 14.9 % to a total of €335 million. Total operating expenses less reinsurance commission received increased by 8.3% to €1,065 million.

Deterioration of investment income due to the write-off of Greek government bonds
As of 30 September 2011, the UNIQA Group’s portfolio of investments amounted to €23,611 million (2.6%). Above all due to the write-downs of Greek bonds to market values as at 30 September 2011, investment income sank to €147 million (- 78.2%).

Profit on ordinary activities at €–181 million after three quarters of 2011
The UNIQA Group’s profit on ordinary activities (before consideration of the Hungarian special tax on the financial sector) fell in the first nine months due to the huge write-downs on Greek government bonds, to €–181 million.

Outlook: Still a positive trend in core operational business, but burden on annual result due to write-downs of Greek government bonds and special expenditure for UNIQA restructuring
UNIQA expects the positive trends in operational core business to continue. The special expenditure for the restructuring of the UNIQA Group and the write-downs of Greek government bonds will however have a massive impact on the annual result. Therefore, the result from ordinary business activities – under the assumption that there are no claims due to natural disasters and no further negative developments in the capital markets – will be somewhere between €-250 million and €-300 million.

Reservations concerning statements about the future
This message contains statements that refer to future developments in the UNIQA Group Austria. These statements are appraisals that are made based on all information available to us at the current point in time. If the assumptions on which they are based do not occur, the actual events may vary from the results currently expected. For this reason, we cannot accept liability for these statements.