Investments, shareholders’ equity and underwriting provisions

Investments

A brief presentation of the investments is included on page 151 of the notes to the consolidated financial statements.

Total VIG investments (including cash and cash equivalents) were EUR 36,236.20 million as of 31 December 2016. Compared with the previous year, this represents an increase of EUR 4,993.02 million, or 16.0%. The main reason for the increase was the change in consolidation method used for the non-profit societies, which resulted in all of their assets and liabilities being included in the consolidated financial statements.

The investments include all Vienna Insurance Group land and buildings, all shares in at equity consolidated companies and all financial instruments, using the look-through approach 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 5.0% from EUR 8,144.14 million in 2015 to EUR 8,549.58 million in 2016, mainly due to price gains for fund-linked and index-linked products.

Shareholders’ equity

Vienna Insurance Group’s capital base increased by 29.4% to EUR 5,711.26 million in 2016 (2015: EUR 4,414.46 million). This change was primarily due to the change in consolidation method used for the non-profit societies, which raised shareholders’ equity by EUR 1,006.17 million, and to the result for the period of EUR 320.99 million.

Underwriting provisions

Underwriting provisions (excluding underwriting provisions for unit-linked and index-linked life insurance) were EUR 29,220.07 million as of 31 December 2016, representing an increase of 3.8% over the previous year (2015: EUR 28,145.12 million).