Image: GEORG HOCHMUTH (APA)
The listed insurer Uniqa posted higher profits last year. Earnings before taxes (EGT) rose from EUR 421.7 million to EUR 426.4 million, the company announced on Thursday. The premiums written also grew, climbing by 9.7 percent from a good 6.55 billion euros to around 7.19 billion euros. They want to address their shareholders UNIQA will pay out 0.57 euros per share for 2023, after 0.55 euros for 2022.
The insurance turnover – the underwriting income according to the accounting standard IFRS 17 – the Uniqa rose by 12.1 percent to almost 6 billion euros (2022: 5.35 billion euros). According to the information, all insurance divisions contributed to this improvement. Compared to the previous year, property and casualty insurance increased by 12.9 percent, health insurance by 8.3 percent and life insurance by 14.2 percent. The “Combined ratio”, which represents the ratio of damage and costs measured by premium income, improved from 91.7 percent to 89.4 percent. The regulatory capital ratio for 2023 is 255 percent, after 246 percent in the previous year.
The key figures and their comparative values are now reported in accordance with the new accounting standard IFRS 9/17. The rules have been in force since the beginning of 2023. They are intended to better reflect the development of the business in the long term and improve comparability in the industry. An exception for the time being are the premiums charged, which are not in themselves part of the reporting according to IFRS 9/17, but are still reported.
The growth in results is “very neat”said CEO Andreas Brandstetter on Thursday at the press conference. Above all, the investment result, which rose from 179.8 million euros to 588.8 million euros, was pleasing, with particularly good success in the bonds sector, said CFO Kurt Svoboda.
However, the Signa commitment was significantly devalued Uniqa– a bond worth 80 million euros from Signa Prime. This was “devalued to 30 percent”, this is reflected in the profit and loss statement with a need for devaluation of 8 million euros, said Svoboda. However, in relation to the total assets under management, which amount to 20.4 billion euros, the Signa exposure only accounts for a very small proportion, emphasized Brandstetter.
The ongoing insolvency proceedings are being monitored Uniqa very accurate. Like other insurers who are Signa creditors, the Uniqa dissatisfied with the self-management and the procedure. “We advocate that there be an orderly restructuring process”, in which transparency is the priority and all creditors are treated equally, said Svoboda. This is currently not the case; a lack of information is a particularly big problem.
The exit from Russia, where the UNIQA The company, which was involved with Raiffeisen Life Versicherung together with Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), continues to run. When it will be completed depends primarily on the Russian regulator. The contact is professional. Brandstetter hopes that the approvals will come in the first half of the year. The buyer of Raiffeisen Life is the Russian insurer Renaissance Life.
As a general challenge for the Uniqa Svoboda called the ever-increasing damage caused by storms. For the insurer, 2023 was the third worst storm year in the last 20 years. In Austria, damages amounting to 153 million euros were recorded, in the CEE region Uniqa it was 33 million euros.
The big problem is that the storms are recurring events and the costs for them cannot be borne by the private sector alone in the future. Cooperation with politicians is therefore needed – also in order to be able to create a legal claim for such insurance. Worldwide, only 75 percent of damage is currently insured; Svoboda believes that this proportion will continue to decrease in the future because the risks can no longer be priced.
For Austria, Brandstetter referred to fire insurance, which has been discussed for many years, and which could include natural disaster insurance. The disaster fund in Austria is important and useful, but only covers part of the damage, said Svoboda.
For the current year, she wants to Uniqa focus primarily on improving their profitability. “We are very confident that we will make further progress in the area of insurance technology”said Brandstetter.
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