Vienna Insurance Group, an insurer in the Central and Eastern European region, has reported double-digit premium growth and a solid increase in profit during a particularly successful financial year 2023.
Gross written premiums (GPW) hit €13.8 billion, a 10% increase on 2022, with profit before taxes of approximately €773 million, a whopping 32% increase attributed primarily to positive developments in the Austria, Extended CEE and Group Functions segments.
The insurer has reported a combined ratio of 92.6%, an improvement of 0.2 percentage points on 2022, with an insurance service revenue of €10.9 billion, up 12%, and a solvency ratio of 269%.
The increase in GPW results from all segments and lines of business. There was a double-digit growth rate on the previous year reported in Poland of 12.7%, and Extended CEE growth of 12.5%. Meanwhile, Special Markets grew by 11.3% and Group Functions grew by 13.8%.
In terms of business lines, there was double-digit growth in motor third-party liability of 14.4%, motor own damage grew 14.3% and other property and casualty increased by 11.2%. Premiums were up 7.5% for health insurance and 2.7% for life insurance. 56.2% of premiums written were generated outside of Austria.
The reported insurance service revenue saw an increase of 12.2% to €10.9 billion. This increase comes primarily from growth in P&C insurance. The insurance service result improved by 6.1% on the previous year, to €1.2 billion. The net combined ratio in the P&C business line improved by 0.2 percentage points on the previous year, to 92.6%.
The contractual service margin in life and health amounted to €5.8 billion as of the end of December 2023. The new life and health business was profitable and developed very positively, with a contribution of €326 million. The new business margin increased by 3.1 percentage points to 8.9%. The operative return on equity rose to 15.1%, which equates to a significant increase of 3.5 percentage points.
Hartwig Löger, CEO and Chairman of the Managing Board of Vienna Insurance Group, said: “Our strong growth across all regions and segments confirms our clear positioning as number 1 in CEE. Although the amount of insurance benefit payments made to our customers in 2023 of EUR 9.8 billion was significantly higher than in recent years, we have been successful in growing our profit considerably. On the basis of this performance and our strong capitalisation, the VIG Managing Board is proposing a dividend increase to EUR 1.40 per share.”
Hartwig Löger, on the positive outlook, added: “The growth forecasts for the VIG markets in the CEE region are significantly higher than those for the eurozone and the EU-27. Our diversification across markets, our customer proximity as well as our strong capitalisation create an excellent framework for our continued success. VIG’s management therefore has the ambition to achieve profit before taxes within a range of EUR 825 million and EUR 875 million for the 2024 financial year.”
