"With the take-over of the business via this representative office, the UNIQA Group Austria is establishing itself in northern Italy as a comprehensive insurance company”, explained Dr. Gottfried Nagler, one of the directors of UNIQA International Versicherungs-Holding GmbH, which controls the foreign activities of the Group.

Apart from its activities in Austria and Italy, UNIQA has subsidiaries and participations also in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Switzerland, Spain, Liechtenstein and Hungary. In the medium term the share of premium income accounted for by foreign business should increase from the current 4.7% to 15%. On the basis of the Group’s growth strategy, intensive preparations are being made for entering the Polish market.

The representative office of Austria Assicurazioni in Milan will be headed by Dr. Alberto Arnaboldi. He has been working for Austria Assicurazioni since 1977 and managing it since 1989.

The Italian insurance market           
With a premium volume of 57,945 million US$, Italy is the fourth largest insurance market in Europe after Great Britain, Germany and France. It has a world market share of 2.69%. Austria comes in tenth place within Europe.

Pensions reform in Italy led to a boom in private life assurance. In the past three years Italians have more than doubled payment to private life assurance schemes. Nevertheless, the penetration of insurance (share of the GDP accounted for by premiums) is only 2.54%, the same as Austria, and considerably below the Western European average.

Austria Assicurazioni S.p.A. 
Austria Assicurazioni S.p.A. has been active and successful in the Italian market since 1965, particularly in the field of sickness insurance. The company was founded as a subsidiary of Austria-Collegialität, and now belongs to the UNIQA Group. In 1999 it increased its premium volume by 7.4% to reach 45.6 billion ITL.

The high standard of Austria Assicurazioni’s sickness insurance products sets the standard for the Italian market and has led to increased demand for further personal insurance products. UNIQA is meeting this demand by new activity in the field of accident insurance, and with the new representative office dealing with life assurance.

Friuli Venezia Giulia Assicurazioni "La Carnica" S.p.A  
CARNICA Assicurazioni S.p.A. – a local property insurer in the northeast of Italy, in 299 achieved a premium volume of 60 billion ITL (426.4 million ATS). The portfolio structure is dominated by the fields of vehicle, accident and fire insurance With the take-over of about 75% of the company´s capital in April 2000, the UNIQA Group has more than doubled its premium income in Italy. The strategic goal behind this was to acquire a conservative, traditional and regional non-life insurer with a first-class reputation.