Highlights 2024

Changes in the VIG Managing Board

Christoph Rath has been a Deputy Member of VIG Managing Board since 1 September 2024. Rath was previously Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Czech companies Kooperativa Pojišťovna and Ceská Podnikatelská Pojišťovna. Prior to that, he held various management positions within VIG, including managing board positions in Serbia and Bulgaria.

200 years of Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein

The roots of today’s Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein date back to 1824. Over the course of two centuries, the company has evolved from a mutual fire insurance company in Vienna and Lower Austria to the main shareholder of the leading insurance group in Central and Eastern Europe. In this role, it supports VIG Insurance Group in all cultural and social matters. This extraordinary anniversary was celebrated in lots of different ways in 2024, for example with a special exhibition at the Leopold Museum, a gala concert at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna and a festive matinée at the Wiener Konzerthaus. You can find more about the 200-year anniversary here.

Merger in North Macedonia completed

Vienna Insurance Group is the leading insurance group in North Macedonia with a well-diversified product portfolio and a broad distribution structure. On 1 July 2024, the VIG insurance companies Winner Non-Life and Makedonija Osiguruvanje merged. In the future, the two non-life companies will operate under the brand name Makedonija Osiguruvanje. VIG is thus represented in both the life and non-life insurance sectors in North Macedonia with Winner Life and Makedonija Osiguruvanje.

VIG joins forces in Poland

VIG is consolidating its presence in Poland from six to three insurance companies. The non-life insurance companies Compensa and Wiener merged on 1 July 2024 and since operate under the Compensa brand. InterRisk continues to operate independently. The life insurance companies Vienna Life, Compensa Life and Aegon Life were merged to form one strong company. The merger was formally completed in the 4th quarter of 2024.

Foundation of Vienna Life in Albania

VIG further expanded its market position in Albania with the founding of “Vienna Life” in September 2024, an insurer focusing on life and health insurance. The Vienna Life company licence was issued by the Albanian Financial Supervisory Authority on 24 December 2024. Vienna Life is the third VIG insurance company to enter the Albanian market; it joins Sigma and Intersig, which are both active in the non-life business.

VIG founds cyber security company

With the launch of its new cyber security company, “Cyber Risk Solutions GmbH” (CyRiSo), VIG now offers comprehensive support to reduce cyber risks and prevent and eliminate cyber damage, with SMEs as the primary target group. The service portfolio comprises both consultancy services and managed services, including risk ratings, technical and organisational security reviews, security incident management, crisis management, ongoing information security management and data protection. These services are provided not only to existing and new customers of the insurance group and to its sales partners, but also to the third-party market.

Establishment of VIG platform partners

As part of the VIG 25 strategic programme, VIG is expanding its business model and entering the area of platform insurance. VIG platform partners GmbH was founded at the end of 2024 to provide a strong foundation for this commitment. The company’s goal is to offer innovative insurance solutions through the distribution platforms of other industries in close cooperation with the local VIG insurance companies, thereby sustainably developing a new business segment for VIG. Examples of platform partners include mobile operators, real estate portals, delivery services and event organisers. Initial successes were already achieved during the set-up phase, such as the ticket insurance for the Sziget Festival in Hungary that was developed in collaboration with the Hungarian VIG insurance company Alfa Biztosító.

Expansion of VIG Global Assistance

VIG Group is increasingly focusing on providing assistance services via its own companies rather than via third-party providers. In addition to expanding the range of services offered by its existing companies, the focus is also on expanding VIG’s own assistance services in additional countries. Additional Global Assistance companies were established in Croatia and Hungary in 2024. Assistance services were also extended to Estonia, the third country in the Baltics to be included. This means that in 2024 VIG was represented by assistance companies in 11 countries within the CEE region, serving a total of 15 VIG countries. The VIG service companies now employ around 680 employees who process some 950,000 assistance cases each year.

“Mobility” ecosystem: Collaboration with vehicle manufacturers

In recent years not only has the automotive sector gained importance in the CEE region, but car makers and other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have become increasingly interested in collaborating with insurance companies. This has enabled VIG to expand its OEM partnerships by launching joint pilot projects, particularly in connection with innovative solutions such as those that make efficient use of vehicle data and connectivity. In this context, for example, VIG works very closely with its strategic partner Scania. By taking vehicle data and using it to create driving pattern profiles, VIG is able to offer tailor-made insurance products to fleet customers of the Scania Group. Beyond this, the consistent rollout of our retail telematics product is gathering speed, with our customers in the Czech Republic and Poland having driven more than 105 million kilometres together over a total of 6.5 million journeys.

Competence Center for Customer Experience

Established in 2023 as part of the VIG 25 strategic programme, the Competence Center for Customer Experience (CX) supports Group companies by providing standardised parameters and recommending tools to measure and enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. The Competence Center fosters a dynamic CX Community, facilitating mutual knowledge exchange in two ways: enabling shared learning and co-developing tools and initiatives. In 2024, the CX Community expanded to 18 VIG Group companies from 10 countries. Four central focus areas were defined: sales and marketing, digital tools, claims handling and customer feedback. The initiative will continue to evolve through a collaborative model, driving sustainable improvements in the customer experience.

Digital bancassurance

VIG Group collaborates with Erste Group in 11 countries within the CEE region. In 2024, the premium volume was increased by 6% to around EUR 1.43 billion in that way. In addition to traditional bancassurance, such as in-branch services, Erste Group uses its “George” digital platform to offer VIG products in six countries – Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary and Croatia. A total of 585,000 contracts were concluded via George in 2024. In addition to traditional credit insurance and travel insurance, in 2024 very pleasing growth was achieved in household and homeowner insurance as well as accident insurance.

Top rating – A+ with stable outlook

The international rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has awarded an excellent “A+” rating with stable outlook to VIG. This puts VIG among the best-rated companies in the leading Austrian Traded Index. S&P affirmed the Group’s capital strength and top rating, citing the very strong performance of the Group – which was amongst others due to solid insurance service results, a stable combined ratio and a comparatively strong new business margin in life and health insurance. In addition to the robust capital position, the rating agency also highlighted the market leadership of VIG in Austria and several countries in Central and Eastern Europe. A further positive factor highlighted was the conservative reinsurance strategy, which limits the Group’s NatCat losses arising from various adverse weather events in Austria and CEE. The detailed S&P report is available on the VIG website at group.vig/rating.

30 years on Vienna Stock Exchange

Vienna Insurance Group, still known at the time as Wiener Städtische Versicherung, has been listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange since 17 October 1994. Access to the capital markets was a decisive factor in VIG’s rise to become the leading insurance group in the CEE region. VIG has paid a dividend every year since its IPO, totalling around EUR 2.8 billion. Read more about the stock exchange anniversary here.

New coverage

In mid-August 2024, UBS initiated coverage for VIG with a buy recommendation and a target price of EUR 38.10. As a result, the six investment banks Autonomous, Erste Group, HSBC, Kepler Cheuvreux, ODDO BHF and UBS now publish regular analyses of VIG. The current analyses, including recommendations and target prices, are available on the VIG website here.

VIG hosts successful finfluencer event

In June 2024, VIG Investor Relations hosted a community event of the finfluencers “Finanzen verstehen” for the first time. “Finanzen verstehen” provides free financial knowledge via social media, in particular for younger people. A brief introduction of VIG was followed by a panel discussion on the topic of financial and risk literacy. The panel included experts from VIG and “Finanzen verstehen” and also representatives from Sunrise Capital, an investment app. During the subsequent get-together the Investor Relations team and the panel participants were available for informal discussions. This first finfluencer event was aimed primarily at a younger, digital-savvy target group and provided an innovative opportunity to consolidate market presence with private shareholders, attract new investors and build a closer, more personal relationship with potential and existing shareholders.

VIG shares gained 14.5% in the stock market year 2024

VIG shares had a dynamic start to the year. The upward trend continued into May, when the share climbed to its high for the year of EUR 31.65, but fell back below the EUR 30 mark as a result of the dividend pay-out. In the second half of the year, the European insurance industry made strong gains as measured by the STOXX® Europe 600 Insurance. In particular, the highly weighted stock market giants Allianz, Munich Re and Zurich achieved high price gains over the year. VIG shares closed a very positive year overall with a plus of 14.5% at a price of EUR 30.35. and thus, lagged behind the sector index, but clearly outperformed the national ATX.

Austrian Digital Communication Award 2024

Each year, Leipzig Graduate School of Management (HHL) presents awards recognising the reporting of listed Austrian companies. The 2024 award ceremony focused on digital capital market communication. The analysis included IR websites, digital annual reports for 2023 and social media presence. With a Digital Communication Score of 75.5%, VIG was ranked first by some margin, coming in 10&nsbp;percentage ahead of the second-placed competitor. The average among all ATX Prime companies was 41%. The judging panel was won over by the comprehensive, user-friendly IR website, the intuitive navigation and high level of functionality. The digital annual report and its videos won particular praise, and the strong social media presence was also noted.

VIG receives EU funding for comprehensive cyber security programme

The protection of customer data and IT systems is a top priority for Vienna Insurance Group. The Cyber Defense Center programme (CDC) is operated by a team of information security experts who detect, analyse and defend against cyber threats using semi-automated processes and advanced technology. The service is provided by three competence centres in Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic. The initiative is supported financially by the EU’s European Cybersecurity Competence Centre.

VIG Innovation Days

Two successful VIG Innovation Days were held in 2024, in Budapest and Prague. The events were organised in cooperation with Plug and Play, one of the world’s biggest startup accelerators and Open Innovation platform operators. The theme for the Budapest Innovation Day was “Best Practice Exchange”. At the Prague event, more than 70 innovative minds from across the various VIG companies came together to discuss core topics such as Open Innovation, Internal Innovation, Know-how Exchange, plus the key area of Failure Culture.

VIG Xelerate: Innovation competition

The Group-wide innovation competition has been a regular event since 2018. It recognises innovation projects initiated by the companies and provides financial support for the implementation of promising projects. To date, VIG has co-financed 51 innovation projects with contributions of more than EUR 11.3 million. Each of the VIG companies can submit innovation projects and these are then evaluated together with experts from the startup accelerator and Open Innovation platform operator Plug and Play. The best projects are presented in person by the participants at “Pitch Days”. VIG Xelerate is an innovation success story and 2024 marked the fifth consecutive year of record participation, with some impressive initiatives.

VIG Xelerate: Pitch Day 1 winning projects

The projects below were among those that impressed during the first VIG Xelerate Pitch Day in 2024:

• 1^st place – “Leverage Customer Calls by AI” from BTA Baltic in the Baltic states: The project uses AI to improve the quality of customer calls and maximise the value of the data generated by the interaction between customers and staff in the sales, claims and support teams.
• 2^nd place – “Digital Financial Security Ecosystem” from Alfa Biztosító in Hungary: The focus is on cross-selling opportunities in pension provision, asset management and insurance. The goal is to steer customers from the insurance platform into these areas and generate sales. VIG checks the scalability and connects the business units via mobile and web-based platforms using personalised cross-selling campaigns.
• 3^rd place – “AI Persons Super-Heroes” from ČPP in the Czech Republic: As part of the initiative, an AI platform is being developed with AI personas (simulated AI models) that are specialised in different company departments. End-to-end processes are provided for individual departments.

VIG Xelerate: Pitch Day 2 winning projects

Beim zweiten VIG Xelerate Pitch Day 2024 konnten die folgenden drei Projekte überzeugen:

• 1^st place – “AI Chatbot PROKOOP” from Kooperativa in the Czech Republic: The AI-based product assistant optimises the sales process by providing sales professionals with precise information immediately and acting as an automated Q&A tool. It simplifies complex product enquiries and provides the sales team with direct access to a comprehensive knowledge base of insurance products, terms and conditions and regulatory requirements.
• 2^nd place – “21st Century Motor Insurance” from Omniasig in Romania: The initiative simplifies the car insurance process down to two steps from enquiry to quote and payment and issue of the insurance: all that is needed is a photo of the driver’s ID and vehicle registration certificate. Processing is fast and efficient and uses state-of-the-art technologies such as KYC (Know Your Customer), advanced computer vision, real-time data retrieval, market value analysis and machine learning.
• 3^rd place – “Digital Policy Issuance – DPI-PoS” from Vienna Osiguranje in Bosnia and Herzegovina: The “DPI – PoS” app enables real-time communication between sales, customers and underwriters, as well as real-time notifications for all steps in the process. It is unique in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as the insurance business in the country has so far been exclusively paper-based.

VIG Innovate360: Shaping the future together

“VIG Innovate360” was launched in 2024 to exploit the swarm intelligence of VIG employees. The platform enables all employees to submit ideas that are then evaluated by colleagues and supported by an internal financing system. 50 employees from the VIG companies form a network of investors who use their budgets to finance promising ideas and in doing so promote our strategic goals.

First-time application of the ESRS and CSRD standards

The consolidated non-financial report (sustainability statement) was prepared for the first time on the basis of the new European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), which are mandatory from the 2024 financial year. It provides a comprehensive overview of all the Group’s material sustainability matters and fulfils the requirements of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). In this report, VIG Group presents all relevant information on sustainability-related impacts, risks and opportunities in a transparent manner and in accordance with the applicable ESRS requirements. Detailed information can be found in the chapter “Consolidated non-financial report” starting on page 57 of the Group management report.

Transition Plan for climate change

VIG Group’s sustainability programme integrates long-term decarbonisation targets as a central component of its environmental sustainability efforts. In the Transition Plan for climate change mitigation, VIG sets out how it intends to implement the decarbonisation of its investments, its underwriting portfolios and its own office operations, in the required regulatory format. The goal is to consistently align business activities with the global target of limiting global warming to a maximum of 1.5°C by 2050. VIG thus affirms its commitment to actively addressing the challenges of climate change and promoting sustainable solutions. Further details can be found here.

Tighter sustainability rules introduced

VIG places great emphasis on engaging with its stakeholders in the implementation of its sustainability strategy. In 2019, a declaration of sustainability criteria for the investment process and underwriting was adopted. These criteria were tightened in 2024. For example, the declaration of “Responsible Investment” includes revised and expanded criteria on thermal coal and unconventional oil and gas, plus the exclusion of banned weapons. In accordance with the declaration of “Responsible Insurance in the Corporate Business”, VIG no longer offers risk coverage for new coal mining or coal power plant construction projects, or for unconventional exploration of oil and gas. The declarations and the VIG engagement report with partner ISS ESG are available on the VIG website at group.vig/sustainability/downloads.

VIG ist ein „Great Place to Work^®“

VIG continuously measures the success of its employee engagement measures by analysing feedback from questionnaires and engagement surveys. In 2024, VIG surveyed around 15,000 employees in a Great Place to Work® Engagement Survey. The survey encompassed 27 fully consolidated insurance companies including branches, two pension funds and five other companies from areas including IT, asset management and assistance. The core topics were credibility, respect, pride, team spirit and fairness. Of the participating companies, 85% received the Great Place to Work^® seal of approval. The results are used to develop existing concepts further and create new initiatives. Regular reviews ensure that the measures are effective and are bringing about positive change.