Highlights of VIG’s 190-year history

In 1824, the oldest of the three insurance companies that subsequently led to Wiener Städtische and then to Vienna Insurance Group was founded. These three precursor companies merged in a number of steps until 1938.

In 1945, shortly after the end of World War II, a small group of dedicated employees began rebuilding the Company. In 1947, the Company’s name was changed to “Wiener Städtische Wechselseitige Versicherungsanstalt”.

Construction of the Vienna Ringturm building began in 1952. It opened its doors just three years later as the first office high-rise in Austria and is still used as the Group headquarters today.

Subsequent decades saw the Company strengthen and expand its position in Austria in a number of stages – such as the acquisition of a majority interest in “Donau Allgemeine Versicherungs AG” in 1971.

The international expansion by today’s VIG began in November 1990. Just one year after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the former Wiener Städtische took part in the founding of Kooperativa – now one of the largest VIG Group companies – in the former Czechoslovakia. In 1994, the Company decided to list its shares on the Vienna Stock Exchange, where it has been one of the major companies since that time. VIG shares have also been listed on the Prague Stock Exchange since 2008.

In 1996, the Company successfully entered the Hungarian market. Poland followed in 1998 and Croatia in 1999. The markets in Romania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine and Georgia were entered in subsequent years. In 2007, Vienna Insurance Group further expanded its geographic presence in Central and Eastern Europe by major acquisitions. After entering Albania and Macedonia, Vienna Insurance Group also began operations in the EU countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina followed later.

The “Vienna Insurance Group” umbrella brand was introduced at the beginning of 2006 to underline the shared identity of the Group companies while still allowing an independent presence in each market. In 2008, the Group founded its own reinsurance company, VIG Re, headquartered in Prague.

During the restructuring in 2010, Wiener Städtische’s business operations in Austria were separated from the international activities of the holding company. The listed Group holding company operates under the name Vienna Insurance Group AG Wiener Versicherung Gruppe and is responsible for managing the Group together with the Group companies on a partnership basis.

The 2014 entry into Moldova filled the last remaining gap in VIG’s coverage of the CEE region.