Premium volume, expenses and profit before taxes

Premium volume

Property and casualty contributed 51.0% of total premium volume in 2015. Life insurance represented 44.6% of total premium volume and 4.4% of the premiums came from health insurance.

VIG companies generated EUR 4,599.04 million in Group premiums from property and casualty insurance in 2015 (2014: EUR 4,560.39 million). Premiums therefore increased by 0.8% in this line of business in spite of the continuing restrictive underwriting policy implemented in Italy and the earnings-oriented underwriting policy that was maintained in the motor business in Poland. The increases in Romania (+21.4%) and the Remaining Markets (+7.3%) are particularly noteworthy.

In life insurance, the VIG Group companies generated premium volume of EUR 4,022.75 million, 4.2% less than in the previous year. The decrease is solely due to restraint in single premium business. Adjusted for single premium products, premiums rose by 4.9%.

VIG wrote EUR 397.97 million in premiums in the health insurance segment, an increase of 3.0%. Only Austria and Georgia generate health insurance premiums that make a significant contribution to total premiums.

Expenses for claims and insurance benefits

Vienna Insurance Group recorded EUR 2,534.62 million in expenses for claims and insurance benefits in property and casualty insurance in 2015 (2014: EUR 2,495.27 million). In life insurance, EUR 3,887.59 million in expenses was incurred. The decrease of 5.1% is based on lower allocations to actuarial reserves as a result of the lower amount of single premium business in the Czech Republic, as well as the targeted reduction in single premium products in Poland. In the health insurance segment, expenses for claims and insurance benefits were EUR 326.66 million (2014: EUR 330.27 million).

Acquisition and administrative expenses

Vienna Insurance Group recorded acquisition and administrative expenses of EUR 1,115.84 million in the property and casualty business in 2015 (2014: EUR 1,120.46 million). In life insurance, it was possible to decrease acquisition and administrative expenses by 2.8% to EUR 683.23 million. In health insurance, these totalled EUR 48.50 million, 5.2% below the previous year’s value of EUR 51.13 million.

Profit before taxes

Profit before taxes in property and casualty insurance was negatively affected by the impairment of IT systems, the impairments of goodwill, as well as by the significantly lower financial result. For these reasons, a loss of EUR 41.31 million was recorded in 2015 in this line of business. In life insurance, the Group generated profit before taxes of EUR 162.92 million, an increase of 0.8% in comparison with the previous year. At EUR 50.48 million, health insurance increased its contribution to the Group profits of VIG by 7.1%.