euro adhoc: Generali Holding Vienna AG / Financial Figures/Balance Sheet / Generali Vienna Group: Record Net Income From Ordinary Activities in 2005 (E)

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23.02.2006

Generali Vienna Group: Record Net Income From Ordinary Activities in 2005

Generali Vienna Group’s net income from ordinary activities 54% up on the year
at EUR 200 million. Premium tops EUR 3 billion for first time. Per-share
earnings grow by 76% to EUR 2.82.

The Generali Vienna Group’s profitability increased impressively last year as
Generali re-corded a surge in profit according to provisional figures. Its net
income from ordinary activi-ties growing by 54.0 per cent to EUR 200.3 million -
and thus nearly quadrupled between 2003 and 2005.
Generali also achieved a sharp increase in consolidated net profit for the year,
which grew by 75.6 per cent to EUR 180.4 million. The group’s ROE too grew to a
record high, advancing by 6.4 percentage points to 18.6 per cent, and the
per-share earnings of listed group parent Generali Holding Vienna AG increased
by 76.3 per cent to EUR 2.82. Assuming approval by the AGM on 23 May 2006, the
distribution to shareholders will increase by 19 per cent to 50 cents per share
(25-cent dividend plus 25-cent bonus). In all, the distribution for 2005 would
then come to EUR 31.9 million, having doubled in the space of two years.

Boom in life insurance: Growth of 18%
Consumers in Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Romania,
Slovenia and Croatia paid Generali group-members EUR 3,038.4 million for
insurance cover during 2005. This premium total was 7.2 per cent up on the
year.
It includes EUR 135.0 million of savings components of premium income from
unit-linked life insurance. Premium in the life insurance segment grew by 18.0
per cent overall to total EUR 966.3 million. Life insurance accounted for 32
per cent of the group’s aggregate premium income.
The Generali Vienna Group’s biggest insurance segment is property/casualty
insurance, which accounted for 59 per cent of its business. Generali sustained
its profit-orientated new business acquisition policy in this field, increasing
premium income in the segment by 3.5 per cent to EUR 1,806.3 million.
Consumers paid Generali a total of EUR 179.0 million for private health
insurance cover during the period under review, or 3.7 per cent more than in
2004. Health insurance accounted for 6 per cent of the group’s aggregate
premium income as a result.
Reinsurance business was throttled down as planned by 12.6 per cent to EUR 86.7
million and thus only accounted for 3 per cent of aggregate premium income.

The Generali Vienna Group paid out claims and benefits totalling EUR 2,075.7
million during 2005. This was 10 per cent more than the previous year’s figure.

The group was again able to improve its combined ratio (claims, benefits and
costs in relation to premium) during 2005, reducing it by 1.7 percentage points
to just 92.0 per cent.

Austria: Net profit for the year up 64 per cent
Austria - the Generali Vienna Group’s home territory - remains by far the most
important of its markets, accounting for 71 per cent of its premium income.
Although its premium in-come in Austria (without the savings components of
premium income from unit-linked life insurance business) only grew by 2.5 per
cent to EUR 2.07 billion, the Austrian insurance sub-sidiaries’ net profit for
the year was 64.3 per cent up on 2005 at EUR 112.9 million.
The group’s gross combined ratio in 2005 was 98.8 per cent, or 0.3 percentage
points higher than the year before. In other words, the group was able to
absorb most of the losses caused by the floods in August.

Central and Eastern Europe: Healthy growth rather than growth at any price
Applying International Financial Reporting Standards, premium in the group’s
seven national markets in Central and Eastern Europe grew by 16.7 per cent to
EUR 830.4 million. Indeed, applying local accounting standards, premium
totalled all of EUR 935.6 million.
Having previously already done so in Hungary and the Czech Republic, where the
group’s subsidiaries returned record annual net profits, the Generali insurance
companies in Slovakia and Slovenia also showed a profit. The Generali life
insurance subsidiary in Poland is also already profitable. Overall, the group’s
insurance subsidiaries in Central and Eastern Europe posted net profit for the
year of EUR 41.8 million, which was 21.8 per cent up on the year.
The group’s gross combined ratio in Central and Eastern Europe remained very low
at 88.0 per cent. However, an ever broader business base is of course causing a
steady rise in this figure.

Investments worth EUR 10 billion
The Generali Vienna Group was able to increase the value of its investments by
8.5 per cent to EUR 10.0 billion during 2005. Fixed-interest securities
accounted for over half of the total, namely EUR 5.2 billion (growth of 12.3 per
cent), followed by holdings of shares and the investment fund portfolio. The
value of the investment fund portfolio rose by 26.5 per cent to EUR 1.7 billion.

Undisclosed reserves contained in the group’s investments increased. The total
in the books of Generali Holding Vienna AG and the insurance subsidiaries in
Austria and Central and Eastern Europe was 15.4 per cent up on the year at over
EUR 1.0 billion.

New impetus for growth to be expected in 2006
As Generali CEO Karl Stoss summarized, "We proved our earnings power during
2005." Stoss intends to keep the group on its profitable growth path in 2006,
whereby innovative products sold at prices in line with the group’s individual
markets will provide new impetus for growth. In addition, Karl Stoss will be
undertaking carefully targeted expansion aimed both at strengthening the group’s
market position in individual countries and at generating new growth potential
for the future.

Further inquiry note:
Generali Holding Vienna AG
Josef Hlinka
Tel.: (++43-1) 534 01-1375
Fax: (++43-1) 534 01-1593
mailto:josef.hlinka@generali.at
http://www.generali-holding.at

end of announcement euro adhoc 23.02.2006 07:29:00
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emitter: Generali Holding Vienna AG
Landskrongasse 1-3
A-1010 Wien
phone: 534 01 0
FAX: 534 01 1593
mail: holding@generali.at
WWW: http://www.generali.at
ISIN: AT0000661350
indexes: WBI, ATX Prime
stockmarkets: free trade: Börse Berlin-Bremen, Hamburger Wertpapierbörse,
Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse, Baden-Württembergische
Wertpapierbörse, Bayerische Börse, official dealing: Wiener Börse
AG
sector: Insurance
language: English

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