Financial result, result before taxes and cash flow

Financial result

A detailed disclosure of the financial result (excluding at equity consolidated companies) is included in Note 16 Financial result of the notes to the consolidated financial statements.

Vienna Insurance Group generated a financial result (incl. the result from at equity consolidated companies) of EUR 924.3 million in 2017. This was 3.6% below the value in the previous year, in spite of including non-profit societies as fully consolidated companies for the entire 2017 reporting year (full consolidation started in September 2016).

Result before taxes

The Group result before taxes rose to EUR 442.5 million in 2017 (2016: EUR 406.7 million). The 8.8% increase in profits was primarily due to improvement of the combined ratio and the positive trend in the life insurance underwriting results in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Profits rose particularly strongly in Poland, Slovakia and the Baltic states in 2017.

Cash flow

The cash flow from operating activities rose from EUR 1,132.7 million in 2016 to EUR 1,269.9 million in 2017. The cash flow from investing activities changed from EUR -693.0 million in 2016 to EUR -1,328.9 million in 2017, primarily due to an increase in the size of the portfolio in the life lines of business and the accompanying increase in investing activities. VIG’s financing activities produced a cash flow of EUR -37.9 million in 2017 (2016: EUR -110.1 million). This year-on-year improvement was primarily due to the positive net cash flow from the issue and repayment of subordinated liabilities. The Group had cash and cash equivalents of EUR 1,497.7 million at the end of 2017 (2016: EUR 1,589.9 million). Vienna Insurance Group received a total of EUR 897.2 million in interest and dividends in 2017 (2016: EUR 908.4 million).