Negotiations between UNIQA and Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A., the majority holder of CARNICA Assicurazioni S.p.A./ Udine, founded in 1920, were held so as to acquire a qualified share majority, and have been concluded positively.

CARNICA Assicurazioni S.p.A., a local non-life insurance company, reached a gross premium volume of LIT 60,000 million in 1999. The portfolio structure is dominated by car, accident and fire insurance and is managed at CARNICA headquarters in Udine by 47 employees. Sales operations are conducted through a network of agencies exclusively tied to CARNICA. The strategic option was to purchase a traditional and conservative property insurance portfolio of excellent reputation. This acquisition allows UNIQA Group Austria to step across Austria’s boarders into a region already characterised by strong cross-border relations in various business areas. CARNICA will closely cooperate with Austria Assicurazioni S.p.A., a UNIQA sister company already established in Milan, which will certainly lead to many synergies in administration and organisation.

Another step towards an international UNIQA Group
To date, UNIQA ha been represented in Italy by Austria Assicurazioni S.p.A. based in Milan. The business of this company concentrates on health insurance. With a gross premium volume of LIT 47,000 in 1999, the company is among the 15 leading health insurers in Italy. As of the beginning of last year, AUSTRIA Assicurazioni started to become active in the accident insurance line.

Synergies and cooperation with existing UNIQA Group activities on the Italian market
In the future, UNIQA Group Austria will develop its Italian life insurance sector from its UNIQA Personenversicherung AG branch office in Milan. Business activities should start towards the middle of the year. This step enables UNIQA Group Austria to establish itself in Italy as a universal insurance company and to take advantage of the synergies within the newly created structures. By acquiring CARNICA, UNIQA Group has more than doubled its premium volume in Italy and has taken a huge step towards the internationalisation of its core business. In the medium term, UNIQA Group plans to achieve 15% of its total premium volume in international markets.

UNIQA Group Austria
With a premium volume of EUR 2,190 million and around 6500 employees, UNIQA is one of the leading Insurance Groups in Central Europe. UNIQA was established by a merger between Bundesländer-Versicherung and Austria-Collegialität, two traditional Austrian insurance companies, and offers a perfect symbiosis of Austrian identity within European horizons. The structure of the company is designed to touch upon new dimensions in the wide range of insurance products. UNIQA Group Austria is a competent and flexible partner, which helps its clients with their plans for the future. We know very well that every human being is different and that we have to offer high-quality solutions tailor-made to match the needs of every single individual. This is the governing principle for all our products and services offered by our companies in 10 European countries (Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Croatia, Hungary and Liechtenstein).