Investments, shareholders’ equity and underwriting provisions

Investments

BREAKDOWN OF INVESTMENTS 2015

A brief presentation of the investments is included on page 113 of the notes to the consolidated financial statements. Total Vienna Insurance Group investments (including cash and cash equivalents) were EUR 31,812.46 million as of 31 December 2015. Compared with the previous year, this represents an increase of EUR 670.93 million, or 2.2%. The main reasons for this rise were the increase in the investment volume from the inflow of liquidity resulting from the issuing of supplementary capital totalling EUR 400 million, as well as positive operating cash flow.

The investments include all Vienna Insurance Group land and buildings, all shares in at equity consolidated companies and all financial instruments, with fund overviews for consolidated institutional funds, as well as other fund investments allocated to the asset classes. Investments for unit-linked and index-linked life insurance are not included. These rose by 5.2% in 2015 from EUR 7,742.18 million to EUR 8,144.14 million due to a satisfying increase in unit-linked life insurance premiums.

Shareholders’ equity

Vienna Insurance Group’s capital base decline by 4.3% to EUR 5,057.80 million in 2015 (2014: EUR 5,283.43 million). This development is on the one hand a result of the decrease in the unrealised gains and losses of EUR 118.36 million, and secondly the redemption of hybrid capital. Furthermore, in 2015, a dividend of EUR 1.40 per share was paid out, which decreased the shareholders’ equity by EUR 179.20 million.

Underwriting provisions

Underwriting provisions (excluding underwriting provisions for unit-linked and index-linked life insurance) were EUR 28,145.12 million as of 31 December 2015, representing an increase of 0.9% in comparison with the previous year (2014: EUR 27,889.95 million).