Financial result, result before taxes and cash flow

Financial result

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

The financial result (incl. the result from shares in at equity consolidated companies) was EUR 596.3 million in 2020. The 41.0% drop compared to the same period in the previous year was due to COVID-19-related impairments and the change in consolidation method of the non-profit societies starting as of 31 July 2019.

Result before taxes

The Group result before taxes was EUR 345.9 million in 2020 (2019: EUR 521.6 million). The 33.7% decrease in profits was mainly due to a decrease in the financial result. It also takes into account goodwill impairments totalling EUR 118.1 million that were performed in the first half of 2020 in Bulgaria, Croatia and Georgia. This impairment was the result from the event-related goodwill review in connection with COVID-19.

Cash flow

The cash flow from operating activities decreased in 2020, falling from EUR 1,298.8 million in 2019 to EUR 310.6 million in 2020. This was primarily due to an increase in expirations of unit-linked and index-linked life insurance policies. Financial instruments for unit-linked and index-linked life insurance were sold for the same reason, causing the cash flow from investing activities to increase from EUR -886.0 million in 2019 to EUR 98.6 million in 2020. Financing activities produced a cash flow of EUR -123.6 million in 2020 (2019: EUR -240.3 million). The positive development year-on-year was mainly due to the fact that the non-profit societies made large loan repayments in the first seven months of the previous year. The Group had cash and cash equivalents of EUR 1,745.1 million at the end of 2020 (2019: EUR 1,443.4 million). The amount of interest and dividends included was EUR 754.5 million in 2020 (2019: EUR 822.3 million).