Expertise and experience, coupled with a strong focus on our core insurance business and on the Austria and CEE region –
all this makes Vienna Insurance Group a reliable partner you can count on. And financially speaking as well, because long-term, profitable growth is a leading priority for VIG – today, tomorrow and in the future.
You can count on us
Dependable and financially sound
Experience and expertise
Vienna Insurance Group promises to protect what matters to its customers. Our Group is synonymous with stability and expertise in providing financial protection against risks. A strong, dependable, long-term partner.
And what could be a more convincing statement of our reliability and long-standing commitment than a history stretching back decades, and our more than 30 years of success in CEE? The roots of our Group go back to 1824. This wealth of experience, coupled with a focus on our core competence of providing insurance coverage, forms a solid and secure basis for the Group’s around 28 million customers. And it shows that we can adapt rapidly to market circumstances.
Focus on profitable growth
We always have an eye on the future. Our strategy is geared towards sustained growth and profitability. The insurance business and a regional focus on the growth Central and Eastern European market lie at the heart of the Group’s strategy.
And this has proved its worth: the Group’s results have improved constantly in the past years. In 2019, premium income passed the EUR 10bn mark for the first time; in 2022, already EUR 12.6bn premiums were generated.
Strong finances and an excellent credit rating
A solid capital base provides the best possible foundations for sustainable, profitable growth. But we also manage risk carefully – at the end of 2022, the Group’s solvency ratio stood at around 280%. This strong capital base is also one of the factors highlighted by rating agency Standard & Poor’s. Vienna Insurance Group has had an A+ rating with stable outlook from the agency since 2005 – one of the best ratings on the Austria ATX stock index.
Results 2022: significant premium and profit growth
Premium volume
around
12.6bn
EUR (up 14.1%)
Profit (before tax)
approx.
562m
EUR (up 10%)
Combined ratio
94.9%
(up 0.8 percentage points)
Steady dividends for more than 25 years
The Vienna Insurance Group Managing Board
from left to right, front: Liane Hirner, Hartwig Löger, Peter Höfinger; back: Gerhard Lahner, Gábor Lehel, Harald Riener
Vienna Insurance Group is listed in Vienna, Prague and Budapest. Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein – a stable core shareholder with a long-term focus – owns around 72% of VIG’s shares. The remaining shares are in free float.
VIG shares have always been an attractive option for long-term investors – the company has distributed a dividend every year since it was listed on the stock market in 1994.
VIG’s dividend policy provides for a shareholder dividend of 30-50% of consolidated profit after tax. This long-term dividend policy is backed up by a range of measures aimed at improving earnings and cost effectiveness. As a result, the Group is ideally placed to act as a dependable partner – not only today, but also tomorrow and in the future.
Keeping fit for the future
Our strategic programme “VIG 25”
Based on the trends for the insurance industry, the "VIG 25" strategic programme, which runs until 2025, is being implemented. Within this strategic programme, the VIG Group is setting goals and measures that focus on financial stability and profitability, customer proximity, sustainability and market growth.
“VIG 25” – a response to current trends
To continue the success story of the Group, Vienna Insurance Group has intensively analysed the trends and developments in the insurance industry. The analysis revealed a number of basic requirements that the Group must satisfy in order to successfully achieve sustainable development.
Strengthening sustainability as an integral part of the business model
Further increasing the efficiency and productivity of business operations, thereby continuing and intensifying the digital transformation
Developing new ways to approach and retain customers in order to respond to changing consumer expectations and behaviours
Promoting consumer understanding of the importance of risk provisions
CEE defined as a home market
Vienna Insurance Group is taking steps to enhance its comparative cost advantage and its proximity to customers. In order to satisfy the needs of VIG’s diversified local markets – which are developing in different ways – even more effectively, the VIG Group has made a distinction between its core Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) market, which comprises 20 countries including Austria, and ten special markets (Belarus, France, Georgia, Germany, Liechtenstein, Italy, Nordics and Turkey), each of which will have their own specific objectives.
Based on current trends and developments, VIG 25 is taking measures to expand our leading market position in CEE and create sustainable value - this applies both to our business activities and our responsibility towards people and the environment.
Hartwig Löger, CEO
Our targets
The three “VIG 25” Group targets
Expansion of the leading market position in the CEE region
Creating sustainable value
Achieving sustainability goals in the areas of society, customers and employees
At least Top 3 in every CEE market (excluding Slovenia)
Faster growth than the market – both by organic “hyper growth” and non-organic growth by strategic acquisitions in CEE
New definition: Core market CEE and special markets
Group solvency ratio between 150% and 200%
Profitability in property/casualty business
Introduction of the key figure “Operation RoE”
Focus on renewable energy investments
Withdrawal from coal sector
Promotion of affordable and sustainable housing
Our key objective clearly remains not only to strengthen but to further expand our leading position in the CEE region and to create sustainable value for society, customers and employees. When defining the Group’s targets, we therefore deliberately placed a strong focus on social commitment in addition to financial key figures, as it is a special concern of ours to anchor this topic more firmly in the CEE markets.
Creating sustainable value
The Vienna Insurance Group has defined financial parameters aimed at supporting the creation of sustainable value and securing financial stability and profitability of the Group. Based on the new strategy, and considering the current operating environment, the objective for the solvency ratio is between 150% and 200%; this range does not take into account the transitional measures which the Group is currently making use of. A new indicator, operating return on equity (RoE), is used in external communications since the full-year results for 2021.
Achieving sustainability goals
Over the coming years, the Group will initiate various measures focused on society, customers and employees under the “VIG 25” strategy programme, in line with its promise “protecting what matters”. These include an increase in green investments. The social aspect includes, for example, promoting equal opportunities for society by supporting disadvantaged population groups. We grant one working day per year to each employee who supports a good cause or social organisation. A programme designed to raise awareness of the importance of retirement saving and the benefits of insurance will be launched in most of the CEE markets by 2025. The idea is to play an active role in promoting financial literacy through initiatives to raise awareness and knowledge, build networks and provide individual risk solutions.
More than 30 years in CEE
From first mover to market leader
Vienna Insurance Group was one of the first Western insurance companies to move into Eastern Europe following the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1990. Since then, the Group has gradually expanded into new markets, most recently Northern Europe in 2019. Over the past 30 years we have grown to become the leading insurance group in Austria and CEE. We are ranked number one or among the top five in the majority of the markets where we have a presence.
Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Moldova, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine
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Belarus, Kosovo, Montenegro, Slovenia, Turkey
Status: Q4/2022 (except Ukraine, Serbia & Slovenia: Q3/2022)
We came to stay
VIG generates over half of its premiums and profit in CEE
Vienna Insurance Group focuses on Central and Eastern Europe, and it pursues a long-term strategy in the markets where it is represented. It was not only important that VIG was one of the first insurers to take advantage of the opening of the Eastern bloc; it was also a great decision. The CEE region without Austria now accounts for more than half of our premium income and pre-tax profit. We still see scope for considerable growth in the region. For many years before COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, economic growth in CEE was on average twice as high as in Western Europe. Based on the forecasts of economic experts, we assume that this will be the case again in the long term. The continuing economic upturn is leading to higher living standards as well as increased demand for insurance, so there is strong potential as far as insurance is concerned. People in Moldova spend an average of EUR 36 a year on insurance, people in Poland about EUR 400 – but in Austria the figure is more than EUR 2,000.
Our compass is still pointing eastwards
Why is the Group so successful in Central and Eastern Europe?
We took advantage of the opportunity to expand into this up-and-coming region early on. And we’ve implemented a long-term, customer-focused strategy in the various markets. With the exception of Russia, we’ve never left any of the markets that we’ve moved into. We invest for the long term and make a valuable contribution to the positive development of the insurance markets in which we operate. Our broad spread and diversification enable us to capitalise on every opportunity while spreading risk at the same time.
How will the Group continue to grow, and where?
VIG’s compass is still clearly pointing eastwards. We also capitalise on specific new business opportunities that present themselves, as was the case in Northern Europe. In other words, VIG is always looking to seize growth opportunities. But CEE will remain our primary focus. We still see enormous growth potential there.
What criteria do you use to pinpoint opportunities for growth?
Among all of the factors we look at, profitability is the main consideration. We steer clear of moves that won’t pay off. We take steps that allow us to benefit from solid economic data, and achieve success and profitability in the long run on account of the long-term perspective we adopt. ESG criteria, i.e. social, environmental and ethical factors, also play an important role. Options for acquisitions are continually assessed on the market. We make acquisitions when they’re financially viable and make financial sense.
What is VIG’s positioning strategy?
VIG positions itself as a reliable, stable partner. Thinking in terms of generations and addressing their different needs, and keeping our promise to support our customers whenever they need us have long shaped the core business of our Group. So forward-looking management and profitable growth are essential for the Group’s stability in the long run.
