Our customers live better

• €1.7 billion paid to our customers in the first six months of 2019
• Over three million storm warnings issued
• Half a million property damage claims settled
• Earnings: solid 1st half

Numbers are one thing, but “earnings figures count only when we do our job well and our customers trust us.” UNIQA employees know this: “We work to make our customers’ lives better and longer.”

Our customers are better off when we provide them with a sympathetic ear, rapid assistance, competent support and quickly get them the money they are owed. In the first six months of this year, UNIQA has paid over €1.7 billion to customers. This includes pensions, money for losses from disasters, vehicle accidents, medical bills, operations, home burglaries, helicopter rescue and much more.

Services to make life easier

Health insurance now has a new service, known as “acute care – Akut-Versorgt”. Under this, customers can get help for acute illnesses or injuries in the evenings, at the weekend and on public holidays when the doctor’s surgery is closed. More than 1,000 customers received immediate assistance, with no waiting necessary, in the first six months of 2019.

Using the “lifestyle DNA analysis”, around 200,000 UNIQA customer can test their genes for free since this spring. The analysis is individually tailored to each person and can help you avoid food that doesn’t agree with your body, detoxify heavy metals, pesticides and solvents and reveals which nutrients are suited for your body.

One popular service is the “medical competence centre”, where customers with UNIQA health insurance have access to personal consultations, can be put in touch with specialists and, above all, get sound medical advice. Typical questions might include doctor or therapist recommendations, discussing results or simply questions on acute discomforts.

One pension – for your whole life

€556 million. That is how much UNIQA paid to its customers in life insurance in just six months. This naturally includes all possible types of provisions, from endowment policies and from term insurance. Although the most popular pension option among our customers is to have the entire insurance policy paid out at the end of the term, more and more are opting for a life-long additional pension. UNIQA currently has almost 16,000 customers who receive a pension each month, thereby using their life insurance to close the personal pension gap.

Rapid assistance is what counts

UNIQA customers had almost half a million incidents of property damage in the first six months of the year – 486,206 to be precise. What matters here most of all is rapid assistance, which is why UNIQA is currently stepping up the pace when it comes to processing claims. 44 per cent of all damages in Austria were dealt with within 2 days. The process takes longer only when an expert opinion is required.

Insured customers reported 259,071 vehicle claims to UNIQA. Of course, these weren’t all for accidents – reports also cover vandalism, damage caused by hail, parking damage, broken glass and much more. 112,756 customers were insured in Austria and the remaining 146,315 in one of our Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) markets. The total amount paid out is also substantial, with benefits for vehicle damage coming to over €255 million.

UNIQA customers suffered 17,800 incidents of weather related damage in the first six months of 2019, over 10,000 of which occurred in Austria and around 7,000 in CEE. The damages were mainly caused by heavy snow, storms and hail. All told, UNIQA paid out €41 million in compensation, with an average of over €2,300 per claim. But the best damage is damage that can be prevented. This is why UNIQA has been issuing storm warnings for years, a service in which UNIQA alerts its customers of approaching storms by text message, giving them enough time to get their possessions to safety. 3.17 million warnings were sent out in the first half of the year alone.

We provide healthcare insurance

With a market share of approximately 47 per cent, UNIQA is Austria’s largest health insurer. We provide healthcare insurance for our customers and help them get back on their feet quickly after illness or injury. In special class insurance, UNIQA covered hospital costs for over 74,000 customers. We handled almost 550,000 claims in just six months for customers who have private healthcare insurance and who submitted their bills to us.

It is exciting to see how customer habits are changing in health insurance: just 21 per cent of billings were sent in by post, with the other 79 per cent submitted electronically. On average, they were taken care of in less than four working days.

Earnings before taxes: solid 1st half

UNIQA Insurance Group made a positive start to 2019 with earnings before taxes of €135.9 million in the first half of the year. The previous year’s figure – adjusted for one-time gains on disposal of €47.4 million from the sale of the interest in Casinos Austria Aktiengesellschaft – was €97.6 million.

In the last full year of the UNIQA 2.0 strategy programme, UNIQA is continuing to place emphasis on optimising the existing business model and supplementing it with deliberate investments in future-relevant innovations for its approximately 10 million customers in 18 countries. The solid result in the first six months of 2019 is a good basis for the year as a whole and for the confirmation of the unchanged outlook for the 2019 financial year: higher earnings before taxes than in 2018 – where the figure was adjusted for the non-recurring effect from the sale of the interest in Casinos Austria – and a further increase in distribution per share to reflect the unchanged progressive dividend policy.

UNIQA
The UNIQA Group is one of the leading insurance groups in its core markets of Austria and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Around 20,000 employees and exclusive sales partners serve over 10.1 million customers in 18 countries. UNIQA is the second-largest insurance group in Austria with a market share of more than 22 per cent. UNIQA operates in 15 markets in the CEE growth region: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine. The UNIQA Group also includes insurance companies in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.