Increasing profit by almost 63 pc of Romanian subsidiary boosts VIG’s H1 financial results

Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) profit (before taxes) of EUR 220.5 million in the first half of this year was significantly higher than the previous year result of EUR 201.3 million, the financial report reveals. The increase in profit was primarily due to improvements in the combined ratio and financial result.

Romania (+62.9 percent) and Poland (+58.4 percent) recorded particularly large profit increases.

”This was mainly due to the measures taken for long-term improvement in the motor insurance business in both countries,” as a press release informs.

Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland were among the countries making the largest absolute contributions to profit.

“All of the key figures in our 2017 half-year report show an improvement compared to the same period last year. This demonstrates our commitment to being a stable, reliable partner for our stakeholders. We are also working consistently and efficiently on our ‘Agenda 2020’ management programme, which has made significant progress since the last quarter, particularly in the assistance area,” said Elisabeth Stadler, CEO of Vienna Insurance Group, summarising the result at the end of the first half of 2017.

VIG generated EUR 4.97 billion in Group premiums, representing an increase of around one percent compared to the previous year. Growth continues to be affected by the decrease in single-premium life insurance business (-24.4 percent). Excluding single-premium products, the increase was a satisfactory 5.2 percent.

The financial result was EUR 488.4 million, 8.7 percent higher than in the previous year. This was primarily due to increased income from full consolidation of the non-profit housing societies and large profits realised from the sale of shares.

A new VIG assistance company has just been established in Romania. The assistance company successfully established in Bulgaria in 2015 will now also start to provide travel assistance for VIG Group companies in Macedonia and Serbia from autumn 2017.