UNIQA Insurance Group AG (UQA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, I open today's 22nd AGM of the shareholders of UNIQA Insurance Group AG which, this year, again, to protect the health of our shareholders and other participants, will be held and hosted virtually on the basis of Section 1 of the Federal Act concerning special measures in company law due to COVID-19 and the regulation of the Federal Minister of Justice for hosting company law meetings without the physical presence of participants and to adopt resolutions in a different manner hereinafter shortly referred to as the regulation. A virtual meeting means that for reasons of health protection at today's AGM, shareholders and their representatives, with the exception of the special proxy representatives, will not be allowed to be physically present. Therefore, they have been invited to take part at the AGM of our company via livestream virtually. Through the broadcast of the AGM on Internet, all shareholders so wishing have a possibility to follow the entire AGM from anywhere and every location through this acoustic and optical connection in real time and to listen to the presentation of the management, both the questions of the shareholders and the answers given, and also to follow the voting procedure. In the livestream, shareholders have 2 alternative links. If during the AGM there are any disruptions or outages, and we don't hope that to be the case, shareholders can switch over to the other link that has been provided. In addition, the AGM can be accessed via telephone, dialing on the following numbers, +43 1253 5501 or +43 1253 5502 or +43 6703 090 165 or +43 720 115 988. The meeting ID for German, 92822675693; and the meeting ID for English, 91306900963. These telephone numbers are valid for Austria. Alternative international dialing numbers are shown on the website of the company, www.uniqagroup.com, under Investor Relations AGM. I will later provide you with more specific information of how today's virtual AGM will be held. I'd like to welcome the shareholders taking part via the livestream or via telephone and their representatives as well as special proxies, who have the exclusive right to exercise shareholder rights at today's AGM on behalf of shareholders. A very warm welcome to you. To simplify matters, we will renounce using gender-related expressions. Any person-related expressions expressed in mail refer to men and women equally. I'd also like to welcome the notary, Dr. Rupert Brix, and I ask him to notarize today's AGM and to monitor the voting process, which is done by IT. I'd like to refer regarding the minutes that this is not a verbatim record of today's meeting in accordance with the requirements of the Stock Corporation Act. The motions post the results of the votes and resolutions taken and any statements and explanations given, such as protests or instructions by the Chairman, will be recorded in the minutes. So all relevant actions necessary for the effectiveness and the adoption of resolutions will be notarized. I'd also like to point out that in order to facilitate and record taken by the notary, we will be recording the AGM in an audio record. I note that the invitation for today's AGM has been published duly and timely with the provision of the agenda in the Official Journal, of the Wiener Zeitung on the 29th of April 2021 and also on the website of the company. Moreover, on the 29th of April 2021, the convocation was published through the European-wide electronic information system, euro adhoc. The information and convocation was transmitted in accordance with the implementing regulation EU 2018-1212, the EU Commission, on 29 April 2021 via SWIFT, also to the Austrian Kontrollbank AG. Furthermore, as of 29 April 2021, the information and documents were made available on the website of the company, including specific information on hosting a virtual AGM, including all the modalities and the organization and technical requirements for participations, including the specification of those 4 persons who have been proposed by the company as independent proxies as well as further information on shareholder rights pursuant to Sections 109, 110, 118 and 119, Stock Corporation Act, and further information on shareholder rights in the case of an AGM being held virtually in accordance with the Corporate Law (sic) [ Company Law ] COVID-19 Regulation on hosting virtual AGMs as of 29 April 2021 pursuant to Section 108 par. 3 to par. 5, Stock Corporation Act, and they have been made available on the website of the company, www.uniqagroup.com under Investor Relations [indiscernible] AGM. I'd also like to inform you that the persons who are physically present at UNIQA Tower underwent the COVID-19 test immediately before the meeting and all have found to be negative. I note that as per the reference date, which is according to statutory provisions, at the end of the 10th day before the AGM, 21 May 2021, shareholders have proven share -- their 29,799,027 shares. I will sign the list of participants or attendance immediately before the first vote, and this list will be made available here, independent proxies. You all have received the text of the agenda. Therefore, I will desist from reading it out. I'd also like to inform you that the company has not received any request for amending the agenda nor any proposals for resolutions. The organization and technical requirements for participation and the information it contains describes how we're going to handle questions and answers and requests for the floors. I will briefly explain the process once again. Questions and requests for the floors can only be made on the individual agenda items. The right of shareholders to obtain information pursuant to Section 118, organizational and technical requirements for participation, have been -- as have been described, can be exercised before and during the AGM by shareholders themselves. Shareholders entitled to participate at today's AGM may, before the AGM, submit questions or request for the floor or exercise their right to information in any form by sending in an email to the company. The questions on requests for the floor and statements will be read out aloud and answered during the course of today's AGM. Shareholders who are entitled to take part at the AGM, at this virtual nonphysical AGM, are such -- who have provided a certificate of the custodian bank of the shareholders pursuant to Section 10a of the Stock Corporation Act and who have given shareholders -- the proxy representatives a special proxy have the right to submit questions also during the AGM, exercising the right to information. As with an AGM, we have participants that are physically present... [Audio Gap] is tied to the requirements of Section 118, Stock Corporation Act. The questions and statements as well as questions and statements that have been submitted before the AGM will be read out aloud. Could I ask the members of the Board to read out the questions that have been allocated to them depending on their responsibilities and then provide the answer? Statements without a specific question will be read out by myself. If any questions or statements are repetitive, excessive or deviating, I retain and reserve the right to communicate just the essence of these questions. Also, I would like to inform you that extensive statements and any questions will be read out allowed by the notary, Dr. Brix or [ Mrs. Beatrice Faulks ]. I invite shareholders to send in their questions to the address [email protected], which is also stated in the information on the organizational and technical requirements for participation. Questions can also be addressed to the email addresses at this -- for special proxies, which are specified in the information on organizational and technical requirements. And these are Florian Beckermann at [email protected]; Dr. Christoph Nauer, [email protected]; Ewald Oberhammer at [email protected]; and Mr. Wilfling, [email protected]. The email must, in order to exclude doubts as to their identity, include the person's first name and family name or company name, date of birth with natural persons or company register number with legal persons. And it needs to be signed by a signature or any other form to allow the company to verify the identity and verify conformity with the deposit certificate. Participants are responsible for ensuring that the email address can be clearly assigned and allocated to their person so that no other emails from that address are being sent to the AGM. Please use the form that has been made available in the website of the company, www.uniqagroup.com at investor-relations/hauptversammlung and fill it in as precisely and concisely as possible regarding a specific subject of your question. In accordance with Section 108 para 3 of the Stock Corporation Act, we are allowed to refuse answering questions if the answer... [Audio Gap] commercial assessment would be causing harm or damage to the company, one of its affiliated companies or would be criminally punishable. We will have a general debate, meaning that we will have the reports by the Management Board and the Supervisory Board, and then we will read out the proposed resolutions. I will then ask the proxy representatives whether they are planning and intending to propose any resolutions. Then I will order that we interrupt the meeting for about 15 minutes to give shareholders the right to submit further questions or requests for the floor. After the interruptions, the questions received by email from shareholders on all agenda items, as described earlier, will be processed and treated. There will be an opportunity also to ask follow-up questions. During the general debate, I will invite shareholders to ask additional questions or to make any statements up to a given moment in time until such questions can be asked. In due course, before the end of the general debate, I will again point out to shareholders that they should submit any new or augmented instructions or orders to their proxies up to a given moment in time. And as indicated in the information on organizational and technical requirements for participation to the email addresses indicated, if necessary, I will again interrupt the AGM to give the special proxies enough time to order and sort out the instructions they may have received. Finally, we will have a vote on all admissible resolutions. As the Chairman of this meeting, I reserve the right to give any other instructions on holding today's AGM. I'm convinced that with the communication channels described and the possibilities to participate, we will be providing shareholders high-quality and legal certainty in determining there will. I also instruct that also for the virtual AGM, we will proceed to the vote by raising the instruction cards or voting cards. I'd now like to briefly explain the voting process. Generally, we'll be using the substraction method. In this method, the no votes and abstentions are counted and deducted from the total number of votes. This results in the number of yes votes. For votes that we need a presence of proxy representatives to ensure proper voting, could I ask the shareholders and their proxy representatives who want to wish by voting no to do so or by wanting to abstain by raising their voting or instruction cards. The voting and instruction cards have been handed out to the special proxies before accessing this room at the entrance. Instruction cards of the special proxies and the numbers of the voting cards will then be read out aloud during the vote to be able to be recorded by a teller. The proxies, their instruction cards and numbers of their voting cards which have been read out aloud are kindly asked to lower their cards. The result will then, as explained, be announced by me and determined using the substraction method. If, for economical reasons, it would be more appropriate to choose any other mode of voting, I retain the right to amend this mode and to instruct that we adopt a different form of voting. Ladies and gentlemen, this brings me to agenda item 1, and that is the presentation of the adopted financial statements of the group, financial statements of UNIQA Group Insurance AG as per 31 December 2020; the management report and the group management report of the Management Board; the consolidated corporate governance report and the special consolidated nonfinancial report of the Management Board; as well as the proposal by the Management Board on the appropriation of profit and the report of the Supervisory Board pursuant to Section 96, Stock Corporation Act, for the business year 2020. I note that the financial statements adopted and reviewed by the Supervisory Board at the meeting of 7th April 2021, which has been formally adopted pursuant to Section 96 of the Stock Corporation Act as per 31 December 2020, and the Management Board of the Management Board for the business year 2020, the consolidated corporate governance report of the Management Board and the proposal for the appropriation of profit have been submitted as well as the group financial statements as per 31 December 2020 submitted to the Board, the group management report for the business year 2020 and the special nonfinancial report or sustainability report as well as the report of the Supervisory Board pursuant to Section 96, Stock Corporation Act, all for the business year 2020. The consolidated financial report, the consolidated statements of UNIQA Insurance Group AG and the consolidated management report, including the corporate governance report and the proposal for the appropriation of profit by the management that are available in German and in English and the financial statements and the management report of UNIQA Insurance Group AG have been published on the website of the company, www.uniqagroup.com. All these documents are included in the Annual Financial Report 2020 pursuant to Section 124 para. 1 of the Stock Exchange Act of UNIQA Insurance Group AG. Moreover, the special consolidated nonfinancial report, the sustainability report, was published on the website of the company, www.uniqagroup.com. And finally, the convocation plus the agenda in German and in English, the report of the Supervisory Board pursuant to Section 96, Stock Corporation Act, both in German and in English, the remuneration report regarding remuneration of the Management Board, the Supervisory Board for the business year 2020, which is a subject of a separate agenda item today, and the proposed resolutions for today have been published on the website of the company. All these documents have been available since their publication together with the convocation to today's AGM on the 29th of April 2020 and also on the website of the company and have been sent out to shareholders at their request. I now give the floor to the CEO, Andreas Brandstetter, for further information. Thank you very much.

Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, I'm happy to be able to report another topic of Seeding The Future. I will submit to you a report on the situation of the company. Of course, we regret not being able to meet you personally on this occasion, but we will try and answer all your questions in a lively and authentic manner. If you are not satisfied, please let us know. My presentation will be approximate -- will take approximately 25 minutes. I will subdivide it into 3 parts. First, I will look back to 2020. Then, I will talk about UNIQA 3.0, why do we think that this is a highly positive investment option for you as shareholders. And finally, I will give you a quick overview of the first quarter of 2021, which already shows why UNIQA 3.0 is the right response to a difficult situation. Before I start, I would like to express my gratitude. The Management Board wants to thank 15 million customers all over Europe who have trusted us in difficult times. My special thanks go to our dedicated employees for their commitment, for their passion and for their work in difficult times. Many of them were working from home. And of course, my special thanks also go to you, to our shareholders, who have continued to place their trust and confidence in us. All that is not a matter of course in times like these. 2020 was the last year of UNIQA 2.0, our 10-year strategy program which started in 2011. One thing is special. The first year and the last year were marked by one-off effects, which burdened the result. When we look at this diagram from left to right, you can see that we were extremely successful in focusing on 2 core markets. Austria is our core market, but our dependence on that core market has been significantly reduced. We now have a second pillar to stand on, that is, Central and Eastern Europe. Everything that does not fit into this strategy was sold and disposed of. We have 15 million customers. We've made clear and tangible progress in increasing the profitability of our core business. Although there is a grain of salt, we still have a cost ratio which, in our opinion, needs to be improved. And this is why UNIQA under 3.0 is paying special attention to the cost ratio. We have a sound capitalization. Our regulatory capital ratio according to Solvency II is, at the end of 2020, at 170% regardless of all the developments. Although, as I said, 2011 and 2020 were marked by special effects, in the 8 years in between, we consistently generated positive results. We continuously increased our dividend per share, and we want to stick to that also for the business year 2020 at the latest. Why was 2020 marked by a special effect? A like-to-like view would result in a result of EUR 301 million result. But we had special effects of EUR 240 million special burdens. On the one hand, impairment charges on goodwill in Central and Eastern Europe, Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia, EUR 106 million. And then there were burdens resulting from a provision for restructuring in Austria in the amount of EUR 99 million and one-off effects from the integration of the AXA companies amounting to EUR 39 million. These financial burdens had an impact on our key financials shown here, not on our gross written premium, which grew by 3.6%, which is highly satisfactory. In Austria, we recorded growth by 1%; internationally, by 9.2%. That, of course, is due to the integration of the AXA companies in the fourth quarter of 2020. If these one-off effects from the first-time consolidation of AXA, we would report a slight decline in gross written premium by 0.4%. The cost ratio, because of the measures taken in terms of restructuring, increased by more than 2 percentage points. It's now at 29.4%, and this underlines why we need to work on that. The combined ratio has increased to 97.8%, but the loss ratio has gone. The combined ratio -- when you look at the combined ratio, you can see that we've had positive effects due to restricted mobility, fewer motor losses. But in 2020, we also had increased expenditure for natural catastrophes. And in terms of loss of profit due to the pandemic, EUR 70 million had to be provisioned for COVID-19. Investment income declined by 14% to just over EUR 500 million. In 2020, approximately EUR 3 billion were newly invested, and the new money yield also declined. It was 2.8% in 2019. In 2020, because of the persistent low interest environment, it only was 2.07%. Earnings before tax dropped to EUR 57 million. Nevertheless, this still enables us to propose a dividend at the same level as for the business year for 2019, EUR 0.18 per share. Those are 6 economic indicators which are meant to demonstrate that a long-term-value-oriented management of the company is essential for us. The regulatory solvency ratio, despite the interest rate environment and the acquisition of AXA, held its own. It did decline compared to 2018, but it's now at 170%. The Standard & Poor's rating is still A-. And we have 74% of unrestricted Tier 1 capital, which is highly satisfactory, and it underlines our conservative approach. The green boxes represent the development of our personal insurance business. EUR 3.4 billion is the market consistent embedded value, that is, life insurance plus health insurance, a slight decline by almost 5% because of the interest rate environment, but it's still very sound and solid value. We are happy to report that the new business value increased to EUR 111 million, by almost EUR 20 million, mainly due to the acquisition of the AXA company in Austria. We are experiencing a slight decline in the new business margin from more than 4% to 3.6%. The integration of AXA has been mentioned a couple of times. Now what's the background? And what are the next steps to be taken? As you know, the transaction was signed in February 2020. The closing happened according to schedule with no delay at all in October 2020. And therefore, the fourth quarter for the first time includes AXA figures in our consolidated figures. Now why is the acquisition of AXA so important? It was the biggest acquisition ever made by UNIQA, purchase price approximately EUR 1 billion. Why do we think it's so important? You as shareholders are invested in a company that has gained 5 million new customers, EUR 800 million additional premium volume, but we're also a company -- or we have acquired a company which in the first -- in 2020 and in the first 3 months of 2021 performed very, very well. The company has know-how which we didn't have in the group before in the fields of digitalization, artificial intelligence, pricing and underwriting. This opens up new opportunities for us, and it makes us highly confident that the company will contribute significantly to the achievement of our targets as a group. The legal merger, that is the merger of UNIQA companies in Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia with the AXA companies there, will happen either during this quarter or in the third quarter of 2021. Let me move on to the second chapter of my presentation, UNIQA 3.0 -- Seeding The Future. You're invested in a group which has the privilege of serving more than 15 million customers all over Europe, from Lichtenstein in the west to Russia in the east. 3.6 million of these customers are based in Austria, almost 12 million in Central and Eastern Europe. These customers have one thing in common. They are all living in times of uncertainty. They need someone who moves ahead, who acts as an inspiring coach, who accompanies them on the way. This is our approach, and this is why we've looked at our world view that is mega trends, of which we believe that they are extremely important for you as shareholders and for our customers. The most important megatrends are the low interest rates and the shift of economic power, on the one hand. We will have to live with low interest rates for a long time, and COVID-19 has made it even worse. But low interest rate, what does that mean? Will housing still be affordable? What's going to happen to my provision for old age? Will the state be able to provide for its citizens' old age in the long term? And what about the distribution of wealth in the country? Will there be states or regions in the Europe where there will be a growing degree of inequality? Another mega trend shown on the right is demographic and social change. We're all aging and we are living longer than the generation before us. But we will not be healthy longer automatically. Despite COVID-19, there is a trend towards urbanization. People will live in cities and towns regardless of COVID-19. We're convinced of that. How can UNIQA respond to that? What are the social structures in which our customers are going to live? Another megatrend is innovation and digitalization. It's a cost and a benefit. For us, it's more of a benefit. It's true, the dividing lines between different sectors are disappearing. Companies that never were active in the field of financial services now can do so. They can fish in our pond and offer financial and insurance services. We can do the same. We, too, can fish in other people's ponds. We can enlarge our ecosystem. You will remember from last year that we have 4 ecosystems in UNIQA. The most important one is health. The second most important one is everything to do with housing. The third ecosystem concerns mobility, and the fourth ecosystem is providing for risks. On the right-hand side, at the bottom, there is another mega trend which is really more than a mega trend because this underlines our responsibility as a corporate citizen. We have to be sustainable. We have to assume responsibility for everything to do with climate change. This is an original topic that has always been important in the insurance industry. It's a responsibility which we as managers, as employees have because we're one of the biggest companies in Austria. It's a responsibility which we have to assume as Austrian citizens and as European citizens, as mothers, as fathers. And what UNIQA is doing and why, this is much more than paying lip service to sustainability. I will tell you more about that in a couple of minutes. We've -- against the background of these 4 mega trends, we want to support our customers, we want to be a reliable partner and a companion, we want to be an inspiring coach. This is our slogan. This is our unifying motto. For that, we need ambidexterity. Why do we need that? On the one hand, we have to optimize our core business. We have to be more customer centric. We have to be leaner, more efficient, and we have to become more profitable in our core business. Some of the additional earnings we're going to generate will be passed on to you in the coming years, to you as our shareholders. This is the promise this management is giving. But part of our earnings will have to be reinvested in disruptive business models, new business models. I will show you 2 of them by way of example. Why is UNIQA a good, a sound, a prospering investment? Let me start on the left-hand side, the letter A. Our focus is on 2 core markets. We're not getting lost in a variety of markets, no. We have Austria and Central and Eastern Europe. In these 2 core markets, and this is what letter B stands for, we're going to further improve our underwriting profitability because of a reduced cost burden. Let us see. We're not only going to administer and manage the existing business, we are courageous. We invest in the unknown. We invest in new and disruptive business models. I'll explain 2 of them later on. And whenever something goes wrong, and things can always go wrong when you are courageous, then we will have the courage. If things go wrong, we will exit from such investments. The letter D, you're invested in a company which has a strong capital base and a conservative balance sheet. That's the measure of all things for us. And letter E, what you can expect of us is an increasing shareholder return. We've put together 6 critical initiatives for success, and we've been implementing them step-by-step in the field of retail business, in corporate business, in our affinity business, in strategic cooperation with banks, both our strategic partner and our core shareholders, the Raiffeisen group of banks, both internationally in Eastern Europe and in Austria. There are 3 enablers, 3 fundamental prerequisites which we need in order to be successful in these customer segments. We need standardized, simple, customer-centric and cost-efficient processes. We still have a long way to go, particularly in Austria, but we are aware of that. We need first-class IT. As you know, since 2017 and for another 5 years to go, we've been consistently investing a double-digit figure in millions in the modernization of IT. And finally, last but not least, we're aiming at a corporate culture. We're working on our corporate culture that reflects the vertical service orientation. UNIQA is well positioned. When you look at this diagram, you can see that dependence on Austria, on our strong core market, is a thing of the past. EUR 3.8 billion premium written in Austria. Those are the figures from 2019. And on the right-hand side, you can see that after the acquisition of AXA, our portfolio in Central and Eastern Europe already accounts for EUR 2.4 billion. So it's a geographically well-balanced portfolio. When you look at y-axis, you can see that bancassurance, corporate and retail contribute to the development of UNIQA both in terms of revenues and earnings. And when you look at the x-axis, P&C, standing for property and casualty, life and health of -- there are 6 issues, 5 in terms of profitability. Five of them are in green. There are lighter greens and darker greens. The dark green means that we are particularly satisfied. But one dot is shown in yellow. This is the life insurance business which, because of the interest rate environment in Austria, is problematic. We -- a lot of thought goes into that. Therefore, we have to reduce our costs so that cost cutting can contribute to the improvement of profitability in life insurance. As regards P&C, we expect a sound development in Austria with a low profitable combined ratio, and we expect significantly increased growth in our participations in Central and Eastern Europe. I already mentioned life insurance. In Central and Eastern Europe, life insurance is much more profitable, and we expect stronger growth there than in Austria. Our health insurance business is a stable foundation for UNIQA and will remain so in the future. I've mentioned Austria and the cost issue. Now what do I mean by that? We have a starting point and an initial situation with a cost base of EUR 600 million in 2019 in Austria. Of course, there are driving factors. A company that is flourishing, that is growing, that is winning new customers will have growing costs because the company has to invest EUR 30 million in data and IT, EUR 20 million in digitalization. And of course, human resources costs also increase. At the same time, we are saving EUR 125 million based on a new notional cost basis of EUR 675 million to be safe. We want to bring the costs down to EUR 550 million. How can we do that? In Austria, together with Works Council, we have an excellent cooperation with our Works Council. We have elaborated a social plan. For the first time in our history, 450 colleagues will be leaving us within the framework of the social plan. More than 80% of them have already accepted the offers we made to them. Another 150 colleagues in Austria will leave us within the framework of natural staff turnover. But we're focusing not only on HR costs but also on non-personnel costs. About 1/3 of our locations will be closed in Austria. You may wonder if this isn't in conflict with our strategy of being a regional insurer. No, not at all because we want to give our best and most productive employees the chance to go into self-employment as general agents. So the presence of UNIQA across the territory will still be there but on the basis of a much lower cost burden. Eastern Europe is similar. After the acquisition of AXA, we are the #5 in Eastern Europe, and we expect above-average, profitable growth in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia but also in Hungary. Those are our 4 Eastern European core markets. But we are going to tap synergies and reduce costs. As you can see under the second bullet point, we expect contributions of EUR 45 million through synergies. And approximately 700 jobs will be eliminated in Eastern and Central Europe, 200 them already in 2021. I already mentioned the skills which we acquire through 2,000 new AXA employees. The last bullet point on this page underlines another point. We have complementary assets through the acquisition of AXA, particularly as regards pension funds in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. Well, so much about UNIQA classic, our current core business. Let me now say a few words about the so-called disruptive fields of business. Those are areas in which we experiment and take a radical approach. Cherrisk, as you know, is our corporate start-up which was set up 3 years ago in Hungary. And last year, in the second quarter of 2020, we took a step into one of the most competitive markets in Europe, that is Germany. Cherrisk is a so-called low-cost carrier. Administrative costs are extremely low there. The products are travel insurance, household insurance and accident insurance. And the company is organized like an ecosystem. There are approximately 300,000 customers in this ecosystems. We're going to continuously monitor the development, especially in Germany. And should we ever feel that despite a high level of complexity and despite the high competitive pressure in Germany, should we see that we are making progress in Germany, we will not hesitate and roll out a model also to other countries. The second startup is SanusX. This is not a classic insurance subsidiary but rather a holistic health services provider, a company that offers services to existing and new customers in the field of mental health, primary care and active aging, customers that have special needs there. We're not only going to develop our own organic solutions. We have already acquired 2 more companies: one in the field of mental health in Vienna, and we have acquired a participation as regards dignified and active aging. All that is directly related to the 4 mega trends I mentioned a couple of minutes ago. Before I move on to the KPIs, let me say a few words about sustainability. I'm deeply convinced that there is no industry as closely related to sustainability and social responsibility as the European insurance industry. And it's been the case for centuries. Sustainability does not only mean being climate neutral by 2040. It's not only about the development of sustainable products, which is almost a matter of course. Two years ago, one of -- we were one of the first insurance companies to exit from the coal sector. We no longer underwrite coal business. Sustainability for us also means exemplary operational management in the companies we -- in the countries, I'm sorry, we operate in. Sustainability for us also means having first-rate sustainability ratings and being certified accordingly. As you can see on the right-hand side, particularly in 2020, we've been looking after our customers' and our employees' health most intensively. We informed our people about vaccination. We didn't take decisions for our customers. We didn't even make proposals or suggestions to customers. But we organized an awareness-building campaign, inviting customers to think about vaccination. All of our customers who suffered from a COVID-19 infection, we offered them a post-COVID-19 check in order to identify the risk of long COVID and to take the necessary measures. And we set up some time ago already a walk-in test lane at the UNIQA Tower. It's particularly regrettable that you can't be with us here today physically because you could have used the test lane. Here, I'm mentioning 6 examples of our assumption of social responsibility. We cooperate intensively was Caritas Vienna, with the Damaris House. Sindbad is a social business initiative, the Vienna learning facility, Grow Together -- for a good start in life, Teach for Austria and Pro Mente Austria. At the end of this second part, I'd like to summarize as follows. Why is UNIQA 3.0 -- Seeding The Future so attractive for you as an investment? On the basis of radical customer centricity, which I personally have seen with few other insurance companies in Europe, we will continuously increase the number of customers. And by 2025, we hope to have a premium development of more than EUR 7 billion. Moreover, the cost ratio, which was 29.4% last year, is to be reduced to approximately 25%. Our underwriting profitability is to be increased significantly. The target combined ratio will be around 93%. And we're going to offer you a return on equity of north of 9%, and we want you to get an increasing dividend per share as of 2022 at the latest at a payout ratio of 50% to 6% (sic) [ 60% ], but never at the expense of sustainability, never at the expense of the substance of the company. The regulatory Solvency II ratio is to be at least 170% or north thereof. And our leverage ratio is to be reduced significantly. It was more than 40%, and we want to bring it down sustainably to less than 35%. Now I'm almost at the end of my presentation. We think that the results of the first 3 months of 2021 prove us right, and they already reflect how successful seeding the future can be. During the first 3 months of the year, we've grown significantly by more than 13% to more than EUR 1.7 billion. Of course, for the first time, we are seeing the full impact of the AXA companies. Without them, we would be moving sideways. But this underlines the importance of the acquisition. We already have brought our cost ratio down. 27.2% is not the end of it yet, but it shows in which direction we are moving. And we're seeing a combined ratio at 90.9% at an all-time low. Of course, we have positive effects from COVID-19 still on our books. In some markets of Europe, the frequency of motor losses is still low, but we had major losses, large losses, and the quality of our book and the underwriting discipline of the company have improved significantly. Investment income stands at EUR 150 million. This is not sustainable. You have to bear in mind that the overall investment income in 2020 was slightly above EUR 500 million. But we used a tailwind from the market. We benefited from slightly increasing interest rates, and we reshuffled our portfolio to a certain extent. We are happy about -- to be able to report earnings before tax of EUR 112 million for the first quarter. The outlook, therefore, is an optimistic one, cautiously optimistic. When we communicated our strategy in November last year, we said that we wanted to achieve a result in 2021 which is close to pre-corona at EUR 280 million, EUR 290 million earnings before tax, and we are confident to reach this target in the first year of UNIQA 3.0. As I said at the beginning, I would like to thank you once again. I thank our customers for their confidence. 3/4 of all Austrians, as most recent market research tells us, say that the first insurance company that comes to their mind when they think about insurance is UNIQA. And we have been honored as the best insurance company in customer service, customer advice. This is not a matter of course. I would, therefore, like to thank our customers for their trust and confidence. At the same time, I thank all our employees working in customer service. All those -- I thank all those who are participating in this virtual AGM. We're extremely proud of what you've been doing in 2020. We delivered a good performance during the crisis. Our crisis management team worked very well. We have a 4.5-star rating on a 5-point scale, but we're not going to rest on our laurels. We will continue to support our employees through health care offers, telemedicine, through personal advice and post-COVID-19 checks. We continuously ask our employees how they are doing, how they feel about their work, what could be done better. And we want to move forward with the time, and we will continue invest intensively in online training and further training measures also in the field of health. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope that it's not only our customers who say that the decision for UNIQA is a decision for a better life. I hope that you share this assessment, and I thank you on behalf of the entire Management Board for your attention, for your interest and for our -- and for your trust and confidence in UNIQA.

Thank you very much, Mr. Brandstetter. Thank you for your report. Could I now ask Mr. Svoboda to give his report on holdings of own shares and UNIQA's commitment to the corporate governance code? You have the floor, sir.

Ladies and gentlemen, within the meaning of the provisions of Section 65 para. 3 of the Stock Corporation Act, I'd like to give you a report on own shares held by UNIQA in the past business year. At the 21st AGM held on 25 May 2020, it was resolved to renew the authorization of the Management Board, with the approval of the Supervisory Board, to acquire own shares. In accordance with that resolution, duration of that authorization is 30 months. This authorization covers the period 30/11/2020 up to and close of 30 May 2023. Given the granted authorization at the 21st AGM and the earlier authorization of the 19th AGM, no owned shares have been acquired or sold by the company. The total holding of owned shares is 2,034,739 shares with 1,215,089 owned shares are held by UNIQA Österreich Versicherungen AG. Altogether, that is 0.66% of the share capital of the company. Regarding the corporate governance code. Since 2004, UNIQA has committed itself to complying with the provisions of the corporate governance code, and this is referred to in the corporate and the annual report and on the website of the company. On the pages 39 and following of the annual report, you'll find the annual consolidated corporate governance report of UNIQA and also the rules where UNIQA, on a justified basis, deviates from the version of the code. UNIQA had the implementation and compliance with individual rules of the code evaluated for the business year 2020 by external institutions, and that is PwC Wirtschaftsprüfung GmbH, with the exceptions of rules 77 to 83 of the code and relating to rules 77 to 83 of the code by Schönherr Rechtsanwälte GmbH. The reports thereon can be found on the website of the company in German and in English. They confirm full compliance with the rules of the code with the exception of justified deviations.

Thank you very much. I note that the adopted financial statements as per 31 December 2020, the management report for the business year 2020 and the proposal of the Management Board for the appropriation of profit have been brought to the attention of the AGM. Also, you've been brought -- to your attention have been brought the financials -- group financial statements as per 31 December 2020, the group management report for the business year 2020, the consolidated corporate governance report and the separate consolidated nonfinancial report, the so-called sustainability report. I now move on to agenda item 2, adopt the resolution on the appropriation of the net profit shown in the company's annual financial statements as for the year ended 31 December 2020, and I can inform you as follows. The Management Board and the Supervisory Board of the company proposed in accordance with Section 108 para. 1 of the Stock Corporation Act that the AGM adopt the following resolution. The net profit for the financial year 2020 in the amount of EUR 55,722,592.34 shall be appropriated as follows: distribution of a dividend of EUR 0.18 for each no-par-value share carrying dividend rights, that is 309 million as per 31 December 2020 in circulation as of that date, less treasury shares held directly by the company on that day. The resolution is adopted representing a share of EUR 1 each in the share capital. The residual amount is to be carried forward to new account. Agenda item 3, resolution on the approval of the actions of the members of the Management Board and the Supervisory Board of the company for the business year 2020. The Management Board and the Supervisory Board of the company are proposing, pursuant to Section 108 para. 1 of the Stock Corporation Act, that the AGM adopt following resolutions: the actions of the members of the Management Board of the company in the business year 2020 shall be approved for the fiscal year 2020. The Management Board and the Supervisory Board of the company, pursuant to Section 108 para. 1 of the Stock Corporation Act, further proposed that the AGM adopt the following resolution by separate vote: the actions of the members of the Supervisory Board of the company in the business year 2020 shall be approved for the fiscal year 2020. I now move on to agenda item 4, election of an auditor of the nonconsolidated and consolidated financial statements for the business year 2022. And here, I can inform you as follow: the Audit Committee of the Supervisory Board recommended to the Supervisory Board that PwC Wirtschaftsprüfung GmbH be elected as auditor of the nonconsolidated and consolidated financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2022. The auditor proposed for election provided the information specified in Section 270 of the Austrian Company Code and Rule 80 of the corporate governance code confirming its authority to audit a stock corporation and the absence of reasons for exclusion. It provided a statement of the total fee received from the company in the previous financial year broken down by type of service, confirmed that it participates in the external quality assurance system established on the basis of the Auditor Oversight Act, including its registration and the public register of the data Auditor Oversight Authority and disclosed and documented all circumstances which could give rise to a concern of bias or lead to exclusion, such circumstances do not exist, and has taken all the necessary measures to ensure an independent, unbiased audit. The Management Board and the Supervisory Board of the company propose, based on the proposal of the Audit Committee pursuant to Section 108 para. 1 of the Stock Corporation Act, that the AGM adopt the following resolution: PwC Wirtschaftsprüfung GmbH will be elected auditor of the nonconsolidated and consolidated financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2022. Agenda item 5, resolution on the remuneration report, including the remuneration of the Management Board and the Supervisory Board for the fiscal year 2020. The Management Board and the Supervisory Board of a listed company have to draw up a clear and comprehensive remuneration report indicating the remuneration of the members of the Management Board and the Supervisory Board pursuant to Section 78c and Section 78a (sic) [ 98a ] of the Stock Corporation Act. The remuneration report for the last fiscal year is to be submitted to a vote by the AGM. The vote is deemed to be a recommendation. The resolution cannot be challenged, Section 78d para. 1 of the Stock Corporation Act. The Management Board and the Supervisory Board of the company on 7 April 2021 adopted the remuneration report for the business year 2020. The remuneration report is available on the website of the company, as entered in the company's register, and it is attached to this proposed resolution. The Management Board and Supervisory Board of the company propose, pursuant to Section 108 para. 1 of the Stock Corporation Act, that the AGM adopt the following resolution: the remuneration report indicating the remuneration of the Managing Board and the Supervisory Board for the fiscal year 2020, as attached to this proposed resolution as Enclosure 1 and as is available on the website of the company, entered in the company's register, shall be adopted. Agenda item 6, resolution on the daily allowances and remuneration of the members of the Supervisory Board. Here, I can inform you as follows. The remuneration to the Supervisory Board are adopted annually by the AGM as a total amount for the activities in the previous business year. The members of the Supervisory Board receive remuneration that is based on their functional position on the Board and the number of functions held in different committees. The per diems are to be assessed at the same level as before, unchanged. The increase to -- compared to the previous year is due to a new committee that was set up for digital transformation set up on the 23rd of June 2020. Remunerations for individual Supervisory Board members are determined by the Supervisory Board itself from among the adopted total budget. The proposed resolution of 7 April 2024 provides for the following breakdown. This is included in the remuneration for 2020 and is identical also for 2021. Chairman of the Board, EUR 55,000; Vice Chairman, EUR 40,000; members of the Board, EUR 30,000; and functions in committees, EUR 15,000 each. Management Board and the Supervisory Board of the company are proposing, pursuant to Section 108 para. 1 of the Stock Corporation Act, that the AGM adopt the following resolution: the remuneration of the members of the Supervisory Board shall amount to a total of EUR 790,000 for the fiscal year 2020. The distribution among the individual members of the Supervisory Board is subject to a resolution by the Supervisory Board. The daily allowances for members of the Supervisory Board shall be set at EUR 500 per meeting day and per participating members of the Supervisory Board. So much on the agenda. As set out in the beginning, I'd now like to invite, after hearing all reports and proposed resolutions on all agenda items, item 1 to 6. I invite participating shareholders once again to submit their questions and statements by email to [email protected] or to the email address of the special proxies. As explained earlier, I ask the present proxy representatives whether they have any resolutions.

Very good morning. My name is Florian Beckermann. I'm a member of the Board of IVA. I represent 41 shareholders, 6.2 million shares, and I do not have any -- received any proposed resolutions.

The Chairman, thank you for giving me the floor. Of the shareholders I represent, I have not received any proposed motions.

Mr. Chairman, I myself also have not received any proposed resolutions.

And the same holds for myself.

Thank you very much. Could I ask the notary if this should be the case to take up and record any further resolutions received? I now carry on to -- with the meeting. We will give shareholders an opportunity to say any question. We will show 2 films. And also, this gives us time to prepare the questions. We have currently received a total of 140 questions, and we'll try to be as concise and quickly as possible. We'll have a 13, 14-minute break. [Break]

Ladies and gentlemen, I open -- I reopen the AGM. It's now 11:25, and we're going to start our general debate. I would like to ask the Management Board to start answering the questions. I will ask the Management Board members to read out the questions. If questions are too long or not to the point, I reserve the right to only communicate the essential part of the question. And [ Beatrice Faulks ] and notary Brix will read out particularly long questions. It's an old tradition at UNIQA. The first question comes from [ Rupert Heinrich Stiler ]. And following tradition, I read out the question completely, and they will then be answered. So I read out the questions put by shareholder, [ Stiler Investments GmbH ], who asks to have the questions read out completely and in the correct order. With a certain degree of elegance, I'll try and do my best. "Shareholders, given the fact that life is awakening again and virtual restrictions are getting on our nerves, I will therefore be brief at the -- today's virtual AGM. I must admit that I got rather bored with the CEO's presentation, Seeding The Future. Well, I rather side with [ Goethe ], who said, "Seeding is not as difficult as harvesting." But let's wait and see. I hope that the Management Board has finally understood what this is all about, but time has come to find a strong and optimistic answer to the mega trends of our times. Why did Management Board in 2020 underestimate the robust nature of our business model? Why doesn't the Management Board trust the business model? I have criticized a lot recently. At the last AGM, I had to ask Mr. Svoboda why, with an enterprise value twice as high as premium written, why not an impairment? An audit by [ AFIB ] came to the conclusion that an impairment by minus EUR 55 million is necessary. Why, Mr. Svoboda, do you -- how can you account for this wrong assessment?" Next question to Mr. Svoboda. "Is it a coincidence that UNIQA sponsors those sports which our CFO himself loves, that is soccer and skiing? What were the expenses in 2020? What is budgeted for that, 2021? Through the strong and optimistic purchase of AXA, we acquired a lot of additional goodwill. In the Czech Republic alone, the goodwill is EUR 219.9 million." Question, what's the scenario under which an impairment is to be expected in the Czech Republic? Recently, Bloomberg Capital and Focus reported on a Central European real estate group. Proceeds are lower -- of which are lower than the expenses, gains are generated through revaluation. The ECB and its monetary policy is making this possible, making some rich, at least on paper. To what extent did UNIQA invest in financial instruments of the Signa Group Rene Benko? Someone at another AGM had to admit that senior unsecured bonds of EUR 150 million were being used for speculation. Which Signa financial product does UNIQA carry on its books and in the cover pool? So please answer the questions precisely. Another question, has the Signa Group tried to obtain a prolongation of the 4.5% bond or for alternative refinancing? Who took the decision to acquire financial products from Signa? Please tell us who was involved in the decisions. At VIG, question could easily be answered. Question 10, can you exclude that UNIQA will lose -- will make losses on these financial products from Rene Benko? And Professor of Economics is being quoted saying Signa is condemned to grow. Otherwise, it would collapse piece by piece. Question to the CFO, have we made this risky growth possible with our money? Do you know what a Ponzi scheme is? Please tell our shareholders in simple terms. At the end of 2020, we had obligations of EUR 574 million. What are the 7 biggest items? As EUR 1 billion was spent for AXA, 5 million new customers, 800 million premium. This is not really cost effective. Question to Wolfgang Kindl. I'm sure he will understand. When are you approaching the contribution of EUR 100 million per year on a sustainable basis? I'm now referring to the annual report of UNIQA. Why did you apply the lowest of cost of market? The principle in the case of index linked, life insurance, the interest rate is only 1.2%. What are your expectations for 2021? You may remember my question 6 and 7. In P&C, we have floating capital investments, a loss of EUR 13.1 million. Why and what exactly in capital investment -- and P&C equities, bonds and other fixed income financial instruments have gone down significantly. Why? And what exactly happened? In the capital investment in life insurance, equities and other floating instruments have gone up by 35.8%, why and what exactly happened? The question to the CEO, why is cooperation with RBI and [indiscernible] weak? What do you intend to do to improve the work of the Raiffeisen Banks? I've always been urging UNIQA to cut its cost. This means also head count cuts, 600 people have to leave the company, which is very difficult and hard for these people in view of the result for 2020, which is not exactly brilliant. I think the amounts mentioned in the remuneration report are excessive. EUR 1.7 million salary for the CEO should be enough. This is 26x the average salary of UNIQA employee. In 2020, UNIQA booked a loss that cannot be made up for so quickly. UNIQA has become the leading insurer for works of art. But unfortunately, the person responsible for that has left the company. And some of the gentlemen on the management board could -- would be well advised to follow his example. So much about the contribution -- the questions by Mr. [ Stiler ], and I would ask you to start answering them.

Thank you very much, [ Mr. Stiler ], for all your questions. Your first question was why the management board underestimate the robustness of the business model, why don't we trust our business model. As you know, in March 2020, we expected several scenarios. We all thought that the pandemic would be over as soon as vaccination for all is available. We had 2 implications on our core business, which we underestimated. In our retail business, we consider the possibility of negative effects on the real economy. We thought that we might experience cancellations in life insurance or suspension of premium payments in P&C. Another thing which we thought might happen was that corporate customers would become insolvent. In March 2020, when we calculated this scenario, we didn't know if and where state aid would be available, particularly to tourism. And that triggered an alarm, and we wanted to be on the safe side. We had no way of knowing what COVID-19 would do to the global capital markets. These factors, so retail, customer, corporate business and investments, that made us be cautious. We never doubted that our business model is robust, but we thought that there were unforeseeable negative effects. I hope I've answered your question. I continue with the first part of your questions. You asked if we deserved the negative audit by AFREP. Cooperation with AFREP has always been good. The discrepancy is about write-off of goodwill 2019 or 2020. And the lessons learned are that, on the one hand, we were right in taking a precautionary approach. We adopted for a write-down in 2020. But in the course of the discussion with AFREP, it turned out that part of that had to be accounted for in 2019. And according to AFREP, 55 million. Your next question refers to sports sponsoring by the UNIQA group. And you mentioned my passion for skiing and soccer. Now the amounts spent on sports sponsoring in 2020 is not within my sphere of responsibility. I was never involved in sponsoring contracts and the amount spent. In 2020, UNIQA spent EUR 5.8 million on sports sponsoring. And the amount for 2021 is going to be more or less the same. In your next question, you referred to the acquisition of AXA. And you asked under which scenario we would have to book an impairment for the Czech Republic. We're doing our calculations on the basis of a set of scenarios like a discount factor and the actual earnings that is described in the annual report. The allocation of goodwill in the Czech Republic happened through the acquisition of AXA. We defined a fixed goodwill and a value of business in-force. That is goodwill, which is being depreciated -- amortized over time. The fixed goodwill of EUR 7.9 million, well, the earnings of the Czech consolidated unit, including AXA over the coming 10 years, would have to decline by more than 30% compared to what we are planning for. That would result in a first impairment of the cash-generating unit in the Czech Republic. Your questions regarding Signa. I will try and cover several questions at the same time. In which financial product of Signa is UNIQA invested? EUR 98.5 million are invested in total, a nominal bond -- EUR 23.5 million and a nominal bond of EUR 75 million at 4% interest maturity April 2047. The distribution of these bonds by cover pool in life insurance is EUR 70 million; health insurance, cover pool, EUR 54 million; and P&C and technical liabilities, no cover pool, EUR 37 million. Classification of the bond according to IAS 39 is available for sale. You also asked if as a cutoff day and as of today, talks have been held about the refinancing of the bond. We're not aware of any such talks about refinancing. No such talks are being held. Moreover, in this context, you asked if we can exclude UNIQA losing money with financial products of the Signa Group. Well, Mr. [ Stiler ], I can't exclude any loss in the form of impairment or downward valuations. This -- but for the time being, neither as of the end of 2020 nor as of today do we see any need for an impairment. Moreover, you asked who took the decision to acquire financial product, seemingly cheap financial products from Signa. You wanted us to mention the names of all decision-makers. We have a process at UNIQA, which with certain financial products, has been defined as of an order of magnitude, asset management and risk management are involved. We have valuation procedures and assessment procedures. And there is a so-called committee dealing with these decisions. In the case of the bond, Andreas Brandstetter and myself in my role as Risk Manager, we're involved in the field of risk management and asset management. Those in positions of responsibility were also involved. As regards to the acquisition of the AXA Group, Mr. Kindl will answer the question.

[ Mr. Stiler ], I refer to your question about the purchase price, which you think was not a good one. And in the second part of your question, you asked when would we be able to deliver earnings of EUR 100 million from this acquisition. Now as regards to the purchase price, when we look at comparable transactions in Eastern Europe in recent months, in Hungary and in Poland, we think that the price premium ratio of 1.2 in the AXA transaction is below that of other transactions, which were between up to 3.6. So we were below the average transaction multiples. And with the price equity ratio at 1.4, ours was quite moderate compared to others, which were between 2.2 and 6.0. As regards the EUR 100 million contribution to earnings in 2020 already, we had a net operating profit of EUR 79 million before goodwill impairment. The AXA integration costs mentioned by the CEO have to be included, and that tells you that we are on the right track. And I'm confident that on the basis of the work done in recent years, we will be able to deliver this contribution to earnings. I continue with your questions about UNIQA Austria. You are referring to the annual report for UNIQA Austria, why the mitigated lowest of market principle -- lowest of cost on market. Well, we chose to elect for that and the impairment resulted from that. You were also asking about the average yield of unit-linked and index-linked life insurance. It's 1.5% after 1.7% the year before, when it -- is it getting too low? What are your expectations for 2021? And then you referred to questions 6 and 7, which were about Signa. In unit-linked life insurance, the product is such that the investment risk is passed on to the customer. And that's also contained in the terms and conditions in a low interest environment. We couldn't help falling to this level. But I know that a similar question has been put before. And I said already that we are seeing a slightly increasing trend. All the guarantees in connection, both unit-linked life insurance are outsourced. You also asked that UNIQA, as of end of 2020, had payment obligations to participations and private debt in the amount of EUR 574 million. What are the 7 biggest positions? What are the amounts? These payment obligations of EUR 574 million are the infrastructure bonds, the infrastructure positions subscribed to by UNIQA. We're doing that because of the long term of the products. And we are earning an illiquidity premium. And then private debt, EUR 146 million investments in health care of long-term nature EUR 26 million and private equity positions of EUR 46 million. UNIQA ventures, an additional EUR 4 million. Another question in connection with UNIQA Austria. In P&C, a loss of EUR 131 million -- sorry, EUR 13.1 million has been generated with fixed income investment. Why? Losses through impairments and other nonconsolidated participations were incurred and included in the scope of consolidation.

The totality of your questions, I don't see any further open questions. You also asked about capital investments on life insurance, shares and noninterest -- fixed interest-bearing securities increased to EUR 595 million. What happened? Why specifically is that so? And here, with regard to life insurance, we have shares and other fixed interest-bearing securities. I will provide the answer later on. We're still working on it in the back office. So much for our answers to the questions asked by [ Mr. Stiler ] regarding [ my person ] -- Mr. Brandstetter will continue.

Question 18 related to cooperation with the Raiffeisen Banking Group. And you asked why is cooperation so weak, what are you planning, so to further motivate our colleagues from RBI? Well, honestly, I have the feeling and I'm firmly convinced that our colleagues in Raiffeisen are working for us with high motivation. Perhaps let me give you a more specific answer by geography and by segment. Cooperation with Eastern Europe is excellent. However, we know that RBI had to fight during the COVID pandemic with the fact that the physical presence of their customers in outlets declined massively. And this is something that hit not only RBI, but also us because our product overwhelmingly are sold and bought physically and not via digital lines. Don't forget in Eastern Europe, this is primarily health insurances or health insurance contracts that are close to that area. So this is nothing that is sold online. And a remark on Q1, we're seeing that these effects are coming down. And we see the cooperation with RBI has showed a significant increase in demand for life insurance products, first point. Second point, in Austria, we have the problem that we have a large stock of life insurance. You know that the Raiffeisen Banking Group in Austria is the largest generator of health insurances for UNIQA. And given the interest environment, it's clearly that the holdings, the stock goes down as the large, high-volume sell-offs can never be compensated with new contracts. And we are turning the product mix for health insurance. What we want to do is to sell less capital-intensive products, but we want to sell easier products regarding biometric insurance and index-linked insurance. And here, we're also seeing not only for Raiffeisen, but also generally with UNIQA, that there is a slightly positive, gently positive trend in Austria. Now what can we do in order to further use this wonderful sales channel in the future? One, health insurance. This does not apply to international but to Austria. We have a very small volume of products, which we currently sell via the Raiffeisen Banking Group in Austria. The volume is EUR 1 billion, and that is actually a small figure for UNIQA. We have a focus on biometric products and index-linked products. And in addition, this product group will be pushed because we believe, if you think of the mega trends I explained in the beginning, that private health, insurance and life insurance is something that will gain ground -- even more ground in the future. But I do think that our colleagues are highly motivated and dedicated not only within UNIQA, but also with our strategic sales partner, RBI.

I will carry on with the questions by [ IVA ]. First question related to the year 2020. And there were 2 major events: acquisition of AXA in Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia and COVID-19 question. The cost of the acquisition, EUR 1 billion, how much did you spend on investment banks and advisers? Could you also mention all auxiliary costs? I take this question, investment banks and costs related to financing. And Mr. Kindl will then speak about transaction costs and synergies. Costs relating to acquisition, EUR 16.5 million; EUR 7.4 million issue of the bond; EUR 600 million senior bonds to have been in green bond that were issued to fund the transaction on the capital market. And here, EUR 5.9 million for advisers and consultant banks, and the rest was paid for the insurance for prospectus liability. Additional information, these funding costs have been capitalized together with the bond. Regarding the EUR 9.1 million transaction cost for consultants from February to October, the cost was EUR 9.1 million.

Thank you very much. I'll take over, and I will speak about integration costs, duration of integration and synergies. Well, in general, we believe that the current cost base of AXA and UNIQA in Poland and the Czech Republic and Slovakia in the long term can be minimized by more than 20%. And the long term actually is the medium term. As of 2024, we want to have set up the appropriate structures that help us save costs up to EUR 45 million to EUR 47 million as a run rate. What is important is that we act quickly. 50% goes into staff costs and 50% into nonstaff costs. And we hope that 75% of the synergy, potential EUR 45 million to EUR 47 million, can be tapped by 2022. Integration costs, it has been mentioned by Mr. Brandstetter that we've spent EUR 35 million in 2020. This has been absorbed already. And this year, again, additional expenses apply to actually realize the run rate of EUR 47 million. With regard to costs, we have an inverted situation. This year, 90% of the total necessary investment costs to tap the synergy potential will have been realized. Altogether, we are on track and we believe that the post-merger integration can be taken forward successfully.

Next question by [ IVA ] relates to state aids resorted to short-term work, short-term allowance in 2020. UNIQA only applied for and received short-term aids for the hotel operations, Sofitel Vienna, EUR 1.95 million. Nothing further. Next question by [ IVA ] relates to a subject that is partly a matter of the management board. But Mr. Rothensteiner has asked me to answer that question. And it's about the falling -- the Board member currently consists of 9 persons, no women. And who caused 50% of the annual result? Could you please comment on the strategy, especially the reduction of the head count and the social plan? The total remuneration for the management Board consists -- amounted to EUR 8.8 million in 2020, and this includes the bonus for 2019, which was paid out in 2020 as well as the long-term bonus. And that is the long-term incentive, as we call it. This increase is due to the fact that at the Board level of UNIQA Insurance Group, we now have 9 people. We used to have 3 people by way of comparison. So that does not mean that we have simply increased the number of Board terms. But these 9 persons, who are here today in this very room, are responsible for total control of the group -- controlling of the group. So they are Board members of UNIQA Insurance Group and also Board members of UNIQA Austria Insurance AG, our strongest operational unit. And this UNIQA Austria AG, as you know, has been merged with UNIQA International? So the number of Board members in 2020 was actually decreased from 11 to 9 persons, so minus 2 persons. In 2016, and some of you might remember that situation, we used to have 6 companies and we had 22 Board members. I hope that would answer your question. I continue with the next question. Did you pay negative interest last year and how much and with which bank? We paid EUR 3.4 million in terms of negative interest. Given our good partnership cooperation with Raiffeisen, the major share, EUR 3 million of which or 87% were paid to the Raiffeisen Group. Next question, and that relates to the Austrian Board for adding the OePR, and I can repeat that we had an audit that covered several subjects relating to leasing, relating to nonfinancial reporting, taxes, first application of consolidation, consolidation of goodwill impairments. The question was, is everything to be impaired in 2020? Or should there be a split between 2019 and 2020? And the Board believed that interest, and that's the largest driver in the assessment of a company, should have -- related to2019, we took up this recommendation and we learned that the potential and careful accounting for interest, even if it's not within our plan, should be applied. Next question relates to the company consultants, the major projects and the cost spent. And the 5 major consultants were IBM Austria, EUR 14.7 million, and this -- they are responsible for the development of the new UNIQA core system, UIP; then Accenture GmbH, digitalization and front-end consultancy; Expleo Group Austria GmbH, and this relates to the development of the new UNIQA insurance platform, especially regarding testing; then Boston Consulting Group in the context of the AXA integration, EUR 5.8 million; and HSBC, [ 10,000 book at 80 ], again, in relation with the acquisition of AXA, EUR 4 million. The next question by [ IVA ] relates to the 3 largest law firms and the related costs. Schönherr Rechtsanwälte, 1.6 million; DORDA Rechtsanwälte, relating to data privacy issues, 0.25 million and then Herbst Kinsky Rechtsanwälte GmbH, EUR 0.1 million. Next question by [ IVA ] relates to media. And the specific question is last year, UNIQA did a lot of advertising. How much was placed in Austrian print media and on other media, TV, social media? Which media companies were involved? And what is the amount spent, including the year-on-year figures? I have to read out these figures. I apologize, I don't have them in my head. Expenditure for print advertising in 2020 amounted to EUR 440,000. That is an increase of 36% year-on-year. And we had placements in most dailies, weekly journals, monthly journals and the RMA regional media. Expenditure for TV advertising, EUR 1 million. That's an increase of 6% year-on-year. There's also advertising with ProSiebenSat.1 Puls 4 group or with enterprise, IP Austria, that is RTL and with [indiscernible]. For out-of-home advertising, meaning billboard advertising, we spent EUR 350,000. That is a decline of 27% year-on-year, with [ Ipa Media TVsta ] on the radio wall. In the digital area, our advertising budget was EUR 1.3 million. That is minus 3% year-on-year. And this includes display banners, such as advertising, moving images and social media apps. In the digital area, we had advertising via Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Google and on our most frequent online news portals. Next question relates to -- from [ IVA ] relates to whistleblowing and learning from the Wirecard scandal? How many whistleblower reports did you receive? How many did you follow-up on? In the UNIQA Group in 2020, 22 whistleblowing reports were sent in. We follow up on every report, if it can be followed up on. And 3 of these reports related to UNIQA Austria and the remainder related to the total group. Next question, when you determined the audit mandate, did you specify quality assurance of the network audit abroad? And how was that implemented? With PwC, we have a process where in the new round of bids, we have fixed up and come up with clear and transparent guidelines. We are in close dialogue in the interaction with PwC, including uncovering all audits, including myself and Mr. Rothensteiner. We take part in all final audits, year-end audits, our experts within UNIQA, together with the experts from PwC. There's a European-wide day of exchange where we share current information or the priorities and discuss them. And we believe that this ensures good quality in the context of cooperation for PwC companies all across Europe. The next question relates to the learnings from the Commerzialbank scandal. Did you invest in Commerzialbank? No. So to what amount and what measures did you undertake to reinvest? This doesn't apply. Any possible loss from the Commerzialbank scandal? UNIQA is the third-party liability insurer for losses. We are currently in the process of reviewing and checking the cases that are still pending. So currently, we cannot provide you any more specific information. And we have made appropriate provisions in our books, and we expect a 2-digit million figure if UNIQA were liable to pay. The next question relates to litigation. Could you give us an overview of the current top 5 cases in court and their economic implication and the amount of loss? The first is the insurance for the interruption of businesses due to pandemic. And this is something we had -- a debate we had at the beginning of 2020 in the insurance business when the pandemic started whether the Epidemics Act or not should apply, when are insurers liable to provide benefits. And we had a number of legal cases and claims and actions in court. And in 2020, we made provisions of EUR 70 million to take care of the situation. And in 2021 -- and for 2021, there's been a judgment from the Supreme Court that was positive for UNIQA. So we consider the risk to be mitigated. Second mitigate was a transport insurance, where we had a claim in 2020. There was an insurance for the transport of goods, and we settled out of court, and we paid -- contributed less figure than the amount claimed in court. The third major block is late cancellation in life insurance. That is something that has been with us for quite some time. And it's been an issue for UNIQA and the entire industry. We have made appropriate provisions, sufficient provisions for Austria and for UNIQA International. Fourth, that is a profit warning, and it relates to an ad hoc publication -- I correct myself, an ad hoc disclosure, which UNIQA made in 2020. And there was a claim from a German company, amounting to EUR 3.9 million in context of business in Germany that was transacted last year. The claim has now been extended to EUR 8.2 million. And all claims have been rejected by the first instance court. And the last case is a performance guarantee case in Albania, affecting the UNIQA Group. The amount involved is EUR 2 million, and we're in litigation with the European Commission. Next question, are there director or indirect costs for political lobbying or donations to political parties? No, there were no direct or indirect expenses for political lobbying on the part of UNIQA. And party donation was made that we gave a [ tumbler price ] worth EUR 60. So much for the questions of [ IVA ]. One question is still open, and that relates to a subsidiary of UNIQA, UNIQA Ventures. And the question is UNIQA Ventures is engaged with start-ups and major companies. Can you give us an overview of projects, costs and contribution to results? This company has been existence for 4 or 5 years. It's an anniversary year, invested EUR 450 million, 30 start-ups and the half of which are in Eastern Europe. The most known start-up in which we invested is one you know, and that is the European unicorn where we have a share. These investments have a twofold objective. One, generate financial return. We have an internal rate of return currently of 20%. That, of course, varies, but that is the value at the end of the first quarter 2021. And the second reason why we do that is because we expect digital dividend. So we're investing in companies where we believe that they have a major impact as a fintech and will have such an impact in the next few years. Certainly, this year, we'll continue to invest, but not at any cost. You know there's a lot of capital available on the market. Prices have gone up. They are relatively high. But what is most important, the yield is in our focus.

I continue with the questions by shareholder, [ Andreas Cagemeyer ]. [ Mr. Cagemeyer ] , you put a number of questions relating to a court case, which I mentioned already. You're pointing out that on the 13th of November 2020, UNIQA issued an ad hoc notification disclosing that UNIQA [indiscernible] was being sued for EUR 3.9 million. But according to correspondence exchange, the amount may go up to a double digit figure. What was the actual amount referred to, the maximum amount? Out of court, EUR 33 million plus interest were claimed. Next question. How much is -- are you being sued for currently? EUR 3.9 million was the original amount. Since the beginning of the case, the amount has been increased to EUR 8.2 million. But that was rejected by the court. Second group of topics. On the Internet, on your website, the website of [ FUPO Consult ] can be called, which maintains that it suffered a loss due to UNIQA Österreich Versicherungen AG. The [ FUPO consult GBR ] is claiming -- is maintaining that the loss is EUR 100 million. What is UNIQA Austria's assessment of the risk to be sued by other claimants? We cannot exclude other claims. Are other claimants under the same cause, have they maintained other claims? Well, no other claims. All the claims were rejected as unjustified. According to our ad hoc disclosure, there are no about claims. What's the amount of the claim from others? For the time being, we can't say anything about that. These claims are unjustified and have been rejected by UNIQA Österreich Versicherungen AG. Then you are referring to another topic. Did UNIQA Austria make provisions for the claim in the amount of EUR 100 million by [ FUPO Consult ]? An amount of EUR 8.2 million has been claimed. That already includes the increase compared to the original claim. We have provisioned for court costs and no provisions have been made for the claim because we think that the claim is unjustified and no provisions had to be set up because the chance of this being unjustified is more than 50%. Not only [ FUPO consult ], but also other claimants are suing UNIQA Austria. Have you made any provisions for those claims as of 31st December 2021? Now I can only refer to my answer, which I just gave. To what extent do these claims -- are these claims reflected in the annual financial statement for the group and for Austria insurance, in particular UNIQA Österreich? My answer from before applies.

I continue with questions by [ Mr. Larson ]. [ Mr. Larson ] is referring to the ad hoc disclosure informing that UNIQA is being sued by the German Infinus Group -- is being sued for damages. The amount is EUR 3.9 million out of court, and the claimant raised demands in the amount of a double-digit amount in million. What's the concrete claim about? The claim dates back to 2011 when UNIQA terminated its FinanceLife business. FinanceLife in 2016 was merged with UNIQA Austria and had a business contact was the Infinus Group. And Infinus Group made contracts for unit-linked life insurance. There was no business relation with investors in Infinus life. The investors suffered a loss. The claimant maintains that FinanceLife when concluding contracts for unit-linked insurance, our policies contributed to the loss of the claimant. UNIQA denies that and says the claim is unjustified. Next question by [ Mr. Larson ]. What is the current state of affairs? The claim was served in December 2021, UNIQA replied extensively, further briefs were exchanged subsequently. And the claimant increased the amount claimed for the [Foreign Language] set a date for proceedings. But rejected all the additional claims by the claimant as not admissible. What's the risk involved according to UNIQA? Well, we think that the claims are not justified and unfounded. Did UNIQA and UNIQA Austria set up a provision? If so, to what extent? Now I can only point out or refer to what I said a couple of minutes ago. Next question. With the collapse of the Infinus Group, investors suffered a loss, which is said to be more than EUR 700 million. Can that threaten the survival of UNIQA? Have any measures been taken to mitigate the loss? We have absolutely no information about a total loss or any foundation for that. In the ad hoc notification of 13 November, UNIQA says that claims are being maintained by other investors out of court. Question one, what kind of investors are those? Those are investors who invested in the Infinus Group. Next question, what are the claims raised by these investors? No further claims have been received. Are those single individual investors? Or is it a class action? It's individual investors and groups of investors represented by different lawyers. Some lawyers represent several investors. What are they claiming? The claims date from the business in Germany with FinanceLife, which was terminated in 2011. FinanceLife was merged into UNIQA in 2016, and they had business relations with the UNIQA Group. Otherwise I refer to my initial statement. What is the current state of affairs? There are no negotiations going on with these investors. Are you expecting claims to be raised by these investors against group companies of UNIQA? We can't exclude any such claims from today's perspective. Does UNIQA or one of its group companies waived the claim being statued part? For how long? No such decision was taken. What's UNIQA's assessment of the risk originated from the investors? As I said several times, we think that the claims are unfounded. Have any financial measures been taken? Have any provisions been set up? No, I refer to what I said earlier about provisions. Have -- has UNIQA Group made provisions? I answered that question earlier, no provisions have been set up. Does UNIQA aim at an overall solution in this confrontation with Infinus investors who allegedly suffered a loss? As I said, we think that the claims are unfounded and unjustified. We're not negotiating over a settlement. The insolvency administrator of [ Prosamus ] another Infinus company, in his report of March 6, 2018, reported about insolvency claims of EUR 12 million, report February 5, 2019. The insolvency administrator claims to have agreed on a payment with UNIQA, subject to withdrawal of other claims by FinanceLife. The insolvency administrator received the amount in March 2019. The insolvency administrator for the assets of future business, [ KG ], the holding company of the Infinus Group, Bruno M. Kubler, in his report of December 30, 2019, also reported that challenges for alleged disadvantage for creditors were quantified at EUR 80.3 million. After months of negotiations, the insolvency administrator was said to have come to an agreement. And the insurance company accordingly is said to have agreed to pay EUR 50 million to the insolvency administrator. And it's been said that the payment was made. The insurance company is then said to have waived all additional claims. [ Mr. Larson ], this context does not concern the current business or the reporting year and it's not on the agenda of today's AGM. How many investors are concerned? It's a large number. But to avoid disadvantages for UNIQA, we can't disclose any information on that. In conclusion, I'd like to mention that the questions I just read out have also been put by a shareholder who is involved in proceedings against UNIQA.

I continue with the questions by [ Berthold Berger ]. Question number one, how many people were locked on at last year's AGM from Austria and internationally? 861 persons from Austria and 96 from Austria. So what UNIQA [indiscernible]? What was the circulation of the annual report in German and in English? How many copies cost for advertising in [indiscernible]? The annual report 2020 had a circulation of 1,500 copies for German and 650 for English. The cost in advertising in [indiscernible] was EUR 90,000. Next, book value per share 2019-2020 and now EUR 10.82 for 2019, EUR 11.20 for '22 and EUR 10.80 for the first quarter. Next, how many people are logged on today from Austria and abroad? At 10:45, we had 247 log-ons from Austria and 45 international log-ons. Next question, advertising, social media, how much did we spend in 2020? For digital advertisement, we spent EUR 1.3 million -- approximately EUR 1.3 million. As I said, that's a decline of 1.2% compared to 2019, including display banner search, [ advertising ] moving images and social media ads. Next question of [ Mr. Berger ], what is the IG? And I think you referred to UNIQA. How much are you spending on security software and cybersecurity? Have you been hacked in 2020? Cost for IT security of UNIQA amounted to EUR 4.5 million. In 2020, we were not immediately hacked. UNIQA was not hacked in 2020. In addition, there was no targeted so-called denial of service attack on UNIQA. Then next question, you asked about capacity utilization of UNIQA's own hospitals and their results for 2020. Capacity utilization across all hospitals was 75%. In 2019, it was 82%. The excess surplus of the PremiQaMed Group in 2020 was negative minus EUR 0.25 million. That has to do with corona. 6.8 in 2019. Your next question, how many hybrid cars? 31 December 2020, Mr. Berger. We had 18 hybrid cars. In 2020, 11 hybrid cars were acquired. And the number of cars in the vehicle fleet as per 31 December 2020 was 159 and that relating to Austria. Next, how many e-vehicles did UNIQA acquire and how many do you have? Our number -- total number of e-cars is 19, and we acquired 1 new vehicle in 2020, and that's relating to Austria. Next, what about the health institutions of UNIQA, the [ 3 ] clinics? Did you get any subsidies from the state? We did not apply for subsidies, and this is why we did not receive any subsidies. Our result was slightly negative, and we've weathered the crisis, as I said. A number of -- couple of questions are still open. I hope we've been able to answer all of them -- are not overlooking any one of them. Sports sponsoring, how much did you spend on sports sponsoring? And which form of sport was sponsored? In all countries across UNIQA, we spent EUR 5.6 million, excluding Vienna, as explained at a different moment in time. And the largest amount went to ski sports. And then the next question, social media. I think that we have addressed that question. And then we have a question on HR. Home -- work from home, COVID-19, how many staff members worked from home in 2020? And how many work from home now? Administrative staff, 95% of our staff worked from home in Austria. That is called mobile working. We had some exemptions. Those people are functions who cannot work from home, let's say, somebody who's at the reception, facility management, depending on government rules and UNIQA management, most staff members work from home or worked according to the divided by 4, meaning 25% of the staff members being here, 1/4 working here at the office premises. That is a benchmark value. Next, what about staff fluctuation in Austria and internationally? In 2020, fluctuation at group level was 11.9%. And the reference value for 2019, 14.7%. That is the value across the entire group. We're seeing a decline of approximately 3 percentage points. And this is largely due to COVID-19 fluctuation in Austria, 11.1% in 2020. And in 2019, the corresponding figure was higher, 12.9%. So this is a decline of 1.2 percentage points. Taking a look at this list, I think HR has been covered, but also sponsoring. I think this answers all the questions asked by Mr. Berger. Well, we have further questions. I see here, and I will take them on board. How much are you spending on IT software altogether? 2020, EUR 24.7 million. What are you spending on IT hardware? EUR 11.7 million in 2020 and EUR 10.3 million in 2019. How many life insurances were prematurely canceled or terminated in 2020, volume? EUR 30.7 million in terms of premium; 45,103 individual contracts. How much did you spend on the S&P rating in 2019 and 2020? We spent altogether EUR 465,000. And in 2019, we spent EUR 345,000. The increase is due to the fact that by issuing the 2 bonds, we had to involve SAP -- S&P. What about the NatCat share in Eastern Europe in millions in 2020 and earlier years? 2020, approximately EUR 12 million. That was the earthquake in Croatia; 2019, Albania earthquake, EUR 23 million. What about the share and the free float of UNIQA by American investors and British investors? American institutional investors in 2020 had a share in the free float of approximately 15%. English institutional investors had a share of the free float of 7.2%, and that corresponds to the earlier years. Did you have shares in funds in Delaware, Luxembourg, Malta and other tax havens? No, we don't. What -- how much did you spend on rehabilitation of people having had an accident? In 2019, EUR 1.4 million; 2020, EUR 1.0 million. How many life insurances had to be prematurely dissolved due to deaths? And what was the claims volume? Was COVID a factor? In 2020, we had 465 casualties, EUR 99.2 million in terms of benefits. And COVID actually was not a relevant factor in 2020. And then the last question, IT and hardware. I think this has been taken. 11.7 in 2020 and 10.5 in 2019. And then perhaps one should add that Mr. Berger in his statement thanks the members of the clinics for their dedicating and hard work, and I'm sure we will pass on these thanks to the staff. I now continue with the questions by [ Mr. Peter Mickley ]. The first question, related to strategy, do the businesses of UNIQA differ in major points from those of VIG? You're operating on similar markets. I do ask for your understanding that we will never comment on competitor companies. I think that's a matter of honesty and decency. Geographically, there's no differences. You will share my opinion, 2 companies that have market in Austria and Eastern Europe. VIG was earlier to move to Eastern Europe, and they have a larger business volume there. In Austria, we are head on. Then there's one big difference, and I'd like to point it out because it's something known in the media and publicly. VIG, apparently, as you know from the media, focuses on several market strategy. UNIQA for many years has been positioning itself as one brand. So in all countries where we operate, you will see and live UNIQA as a consumer brand. One exception, our participation in Russia. There, we have a joint venture with Raiffeisen Banking Group. And this joint venture, we're divesting. But Moscow holds a stake of 25% and UNIQA has 75%, has the Raiffeisen Life brand in operation because our products are exclusively sold via banking channels, and building a second channel would consume too much capital, excessive capital and investments. That is the only thing that comes to my mind to an understanding that I cannot comment any further. I continue with the questions from Mr. Peter Mickley. The share price? We're at 60% of the book value. Are you planning to boost your share price? Mr. Peter Mickley, no, we are not planning to boost our share price in any form. Next, during the COVID pandemic, did you apply for short-term work? No, I've answered that already. Apart from the Sofitel Hotel, we did not apply for a short-term work benefits. Next, whether any COVID-19 infections, which protective measures did you apply both for office work and for sales staff? At the beginning of the pandemic, we set up a crisis team, and we cooperated closely with our staff members both working here at the office premises and in sales. And we were able to gain information of who actually contracted the virus. 30 persons actually contracted the virus, and we know that all 30 of them have recovered. Next, remuneration of the Supervisory Board members increase of 6% year-on-year. Compared to VIG, the remuneration is 50% higher with UNIQA. Why? What is the reason? And the Chairman actually has a function on a dozen mandates, including Casinos Austria. How many hours did you spend for all these other companies and mandates? Does he have enough time to work on the UNIQA Supervisory Board? This increase of 6% results from the appointment of a new committee, Digitalization Committee. The amount of remuneration has basically remained the same since 2019, and differences in remuneration to -- and specific considerations and remunerations are listed in the remuneration report. My own remuneration is in conformity with the market. No, it is not a dozen. I still have a mandate in [ 2 ] core with [indiscernible] Industry AG, UNIQA and UNIQA [indiscernible] and UNIQA Insurance Austria. I do not -- no longer hold a mandate with Casinos Austria. Next question, Mr. Peter Mickley. And you are commenting the discrepancy -- enormous discrepancies between periods and the increase in the remuneration of the Management Board members. To the EUR 8.7 million, you have to add another EUR 1 million for pensions. How can you explain it to the shareholders? What was the cost of restructuring? Well, it doesn't look very nice. If you have poor results hand-in-hand with enormously increased remuneration of the Board members. Well, answering this question, I'd like to tie in with what I said earlier in answering the questions of [indiscernible]. The restructuring provisions booked in 2020 amounted to EUR 99 million, as stated. The increase of -- in salaries from EUR 3.2 million in 2019 to EUR 8.8 million in 2020 is due to the fact that in 2019, we had 3 Board members in the holding and the year after, we had 9 Board members. And I explained that we have identity of persons in the Board, and this means that the number of Board members has been decreased from 11 to 9 here in Austria. Your next question relates to the following, you had a good business year 2019, and there was a recommendation of ECB to pay out a dividend of only EUR 0.18, which was complied with. What amount per share is still outstanding? When will this be dispersed? The dividend yield of 2018 and '19 was the reason why I bought the shares. And for the business year 2020 as well, the dividend looks rather meager. Do we, small shareholders, have to fund the increased remunerations to the Board members with VIG in 2019 and in 2020? There was a nice dividend of EUR 1.15 or 0.75% -- EUR 0.75 per share. Did they not have to comply with the recommendation of ECB? Let me note that the payout of dividend in 2020 of EUR 55 million is not covered by the group result. When are you going to redress this mismatch? When can we expect a stable dividend and a proper yield? Even for the share price, there's room for improvement. And here, I have 3 comments. Mr. Peter Mickley, please note that for the business year 2020 and for the business year 2020, there was a recommendation from the European insurance market advisory authority, EIOPA, and also by the FMA not to pay out a dividend and not to do any share buybacks. So we gave some serious thought into the matter. We consulted with FMA. And in spite of that recommendation, we decided, based on the sound core business, robust development of our business for 2019 and 2020 to pay out or recommend a dividend 1/3 of the level precrisis. And this recommendation was repeatedly taken up for this business year, 2020. So 1/3 of the precrisis level. Second point, let me emphasize once again, clearly, it is our strategy and we now plan to have increasing dividends. So if business picks up in 2021, as we have seen from the figures after the first 3 months, we are quite confident that the development will be positive in 2021. And if you're asking when will be returning to precrisis levels, meaning paying a dividend per share of north of EUR 0.50, then I expect that to happen for 2022. And then your third comment or question, and that was the statement on can the share price be better. Yes, of course. And if we deliver, we will be able to achieve better results also regarding the share price. Next question, Mr. Peter Mickley, and you relate to the results in Central and Eastern Europe and to the combined ratio of the group compared to VIG. And your question is, in which countries in CE and SEE did UNIQA deliver negative results? And where is there an acute long-term need for action? Before the impairments, which we already discussed, UNIQA in 2020 had a positive result in all countries of Central Europe and Southeastern Europe. But of course, Serbia was the exception due to COVID and a large claim, minus of EUR 200,000. Then we had the impairments, more than EUR 100 million. And we had 2 countries trailing negative after the impairment, and that was Romania and Bulgaria. The positive development internationally is reflected in the combined ratio. And here, in the year of report, we were able to notch up by 2% by -- and attained 93%. And the development in the first quarter again shows a combined ratio of 90% that we're going in the right direction. The figures you're referring to at group level, we have an analogous development at group level. In the first quarter, we had a combined ratio of 90.9%. That is a very good value, but still below the level of our competitor you mentioned. And so we have been able to attain our objectives. I continue with the questions of Mr. Peter Mickley. The result of UNIQA, have you been largely hit and affected by the COVID pandemic? Well, yes, 2020 was hit -- we were hit by the pandemic significantly in the order of EUR 17 million, which we had to pay under the epidemic insurance. Next question, the cost of the virtual AGM 2020 compared to the last meeting which we held in presence -- in the presence of shareholders, how many attendance and visitors did you have in 2019? And how many people are logged in, in 2021? The second part of the question has been answered already. I refer you to this question. Costs for 2019, EUR 178,000; 2020, EUR 208,000; and extrapolation for this year is around EUR 200,000. The additional expenses for the first virtual AGM resulted from familiarization with the pandemic concepts and the technology. In which countries do you have the most promising expectations? Which are the star regions? And what are your expectations for 2021? In the current UNIQA 3.0 strategy, our core markets are Central and Eastern Europe, and the potential markets are the remaining markets of Southeastern Europe or Ukraine or Russia. Markets in Central Europe, defined as focus market, are markets are highly developed insurance market with an insurance density of premium spendings of EUR 400 per capita per year. This is about 1/5 of Austria. But compared to the other CEE countries, it's 3 to 4x as high. UNIQA is very well positioned in these markets. We've been highly profitable there, 2019 and '20. In the 4 markets, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, we had a combined ratio of just under 90%. Of course, what was missing was economies of scale. And this is why we have reacted with the AXA acquisition. And now we are right, we're going to be 1 of the top 5 players in the region. Additionally, another reason for optimism is that we expect a recovery in these markets after the pandemic. And current economic forecasts speak of 4% economic growth or more. Has the pandemic been overcome or not? What's the outlook for 2021? I hand back to Mr. Svoboda.

Well, you want to know when we think that the pandemic has been overcome. Now immunization or vaccination is the prerequisite for a containment of the pandemic. Anything else is something that's beyond our scope of responsibility. We remain prudent and act accordingly in the group. You have 2 more questions. For 2019, you are deploring the fact that the dividend is only EUR 0.18. In 2020, you said Management and Advisory Board remuneration is increasing considerably. Now I'd like to remind you of what Mr. Brandstetter has said on that. Your last question is retroactive payment of the dividend, when and to what extent? Well, retroactive payment. I think you're asking for the ex-dividend day, which is the 10th of June. The payout day will be the 14th of June 2021.

Well, we have 3 more questions from [ Mr. Styler ]. Question 11 by Mr. Styler: money has been entrusted to us. Have we made investments in the Signa Group possible with this money? Do you know what a Ponzi scheme is? Could you explain that? Mr. Styler, let me tell you that when we acquired the 2 bonds, we complied with all our internal policies. We did nothing wrong. And at that time, everything was investigated very carefully. And the first bond was acquired under my colleague, Hannes Bogner. Your next question, which is still open, is your question #16: capital investment in P&C, the segments of equities and other floating investments have gone up -- have gone down by 20% and 30%, respectively. What happened? Now we're talking about the solo financial statement of UNIQA in property insurance. Asset items were eliminated and for the capital increase of our own reinsurance in Switzerland. We needed that because we had to provide money for losses due to COVID, and we also needed money for the acquisition of AXA. And the items that were eliminated would not have contributed to the long-term strategy. Your last question is question 17. In capital investment in life insurance, the segment of equities and other floating securities has gone up by 35.8%. What happened there? The question again refers to the solo financial statement. Those were investments in infrastructure and in mortgage claims both in the form of a fund, which accounts for the increase. So we have no more open questions. I hope we have answered all your questions, Mr. Styler. I continue with the first questions by [ Alexander Kozlik ], who wants me to read out the prologue, the introduction literally. By way of introduction, I should like to thank the staff and the boards of the company for the results obtained in 2020, which wasn't an easy year. We're going to pass that on to our colleagues. Your first question is, what's the business plan for the coming 3 years? I tried to explain that in my presentation. Our assumption is that for the coming years, we will grow by 3% in written premium year-on-year. And by 2025, we expect a premium volume of more than EUR 7 million. Reduction of the cost ratio, it was 29.4% as of the end of 2020, and we hope to bring it down to 25%, minus 4 percentage points. The combined ratio, which was more than 97% in 2020, will also come down to 93%. Not so much because we are going to see further reductions in the loss ratio. This will hardly be possible, but we will see the positive impact of lower costs. We are aiming at a return on equity of 9% to 10%. We want to be able to pay out a higher dividend. For 2022 at the latest, we want to be back at the pre-COVID-19 level with a payout ratio of 50% to 60%. The solvency -- the regulatory solvency ratio should not fall below 170%, and the leverage ratio was 42% in 2020. We wanted it to be not more than 35%; if possible, less. That was a summary of our business plans. I continue with your next questions. Legal and consultancy costs, auditing costs for the annual financial statements 2020? Legal and compliance consultancy for 2020, EUR 5.8 million; a cost for the audit of the annual financial statement, EUR 1.1 million for the consolidated financial statements. In which legal cases is UNIQA AG involved? I refer to what I said in reply to [ IVA's ] question #5. What is this year's payout ratio in percent? In percent in 2020, it's 285%. That's to do with the fact that we had special burdens to bear. And the group net profit was EUR 55 million. You're asking about average interest rate on bank liabilities broken down by maturities. I'll read out the nominal value, the target interest rate, the next call date and the maturity date. Subordinated bonds, EUR 350 million; interest, 6.875%, July 31, 2023; maturity, 31st July 2043; subordinated bond, green bond, EUR 200 million, 3.25%, July 9, 2025, October 9, 2035; subordinated bond, EUR 500 million, 6%, July 27, 2026, July 27, 2046; and senior bond from 2020, EUR 600 million, 1.375%, April 9, 2030, July 9, 2030. Financial investments participation, breakdown of depreciation and amortization? Unless broken down in the annual report, I didn't receive an annual report by mail. We apologize for that. But I'd like to refer you to the online annual report. In Q1 2020, impairments from fund certificates in the amount of 30 -- minus EUR 34 million. That's what hit us at the beginning of the pandemic in capital in investments, but we have made up for that in subsequent quarters in the amount of EUR 31 million. So that has been made up for. The write-down carries through profit and loss. The reversal carries through other comprehensive income. That is connected to IFRS. Next question, the implications of COVID-19. Are your offices open-plan offices? And what is your work-from-home regime? We intend to reduce our office space. Do you intend to reduce your office space? This is a question which we, at least partially, have already answered. We are pursuing, as a health insurer, a conservative approach. We should be exemplary as a health insurer. We have few people in our outlets. We are fully functional, but we are very cautious. As of next week, we will have 25% of our staff physically present in their offices. And if infection numbers go down, the value will be increased, and we will ultimately have everybody back in their offices. As regards the medium-term perspective, we are talking to our works council to find a work-from-home solution for all our staff because our experience is that permanent physical presence is not only not desirable from the staff point of view, it also doesn't make sense. So we're going to give people far more freedom to choose between physical presence and work-from-home. But there will be core times when people have to be present. And of course, you are right, we have to adjust our services, our office space. We are investigating what that means for our sites from Moscow to Lichtenstein. We're not going reduce the number of square meters available per employee. But when our colleagues are physically present in the office, certain activities for which you prefer to be alone because you have to reflect on something, think about something, that can be done at home. But when you're engaged in group work or in workshops, you will have to be present in the office. Of course, we have to treat these areas differently in the financial area. Our needs are different from others, and we will discuss that with the works council. The presence at Supervisory Board meetings? In 2020, we had 7 Supervisory Board meetings, 4 of them were virtual, and attendance is 96%. Circulation of the printed annual report costs? 1,500 copies in German, 500 in English. And the costs were mentioned earlier. A breakdown of intangible assets? EUR 2.1 billion altogether. Part of that is due to a capitalized annual financial statement costs to -- according to U.S. GAAP, in-force values, EUR 335 million; goodwill, EUR 353 million; and other intangible assets in the amount of EUR 295 million, mainly computer software and IT. You also asked if UNIQA received state aid during the corona pandemic. I've answered the question already. Other costs of today's AGM? EUR 200,000. D&O insurance, who is the insurer? Some insured premium paid pests covered. Our own D&O insurance, some insured EUR 75 million. This is a basic contract. Concluded was Chubb, EUR 15 million. And there is the so-called accidents, 3 of them, AIG, Zurich and [ Dual ] and Tokio Marine, the accident of EUR 15 million, EUR 15 million, and Dual and Tokio, EUR 30 million. Premium paid? EUR 525,000 per year plus the insurance tax. Companies insured? UNIQA Insurance Group AG and all subsidiaries. Persons covered? All former, current and future members of the Managing Board, Managing Directors, Supervisory Board, Advisory Board members, authorized signatories and executives. No deductible, and the terms and conditions are as usual. How many COVID cases did you have? We had 30 COVID cases reported. Apart from that, we survived the pandemic quite well. You also want to know if the walk-in test lane is also accessible to shareholders. Yes, of course, it's a publicly accessible walk-in test lane, and that is also open to shareholders. Was the management letter issued by the auditor? No management letter was issued by PwC. All rules were complied with and implemented. Where does UNIQA take out insurance for fire, flooding, et cetera? UNIQA Tower is insured by VAG -- VIG. The next 2 questions concern the strategy of the group. What is -- you were asking about the first 4 months in WEB. I don't really know what WEB means. So if you're interested in the current business performance, I refer you to my presentation of the outlook. We reported growth of more than 13%, January to March. The cost ratio was reduced by 2 percentage points, and the combined ratio is at 90.9%, which is a significant reduction from before. This is due, to some extent, to COVID-19 and the lower frequency of motor losses. But it also shows that we have an excellent portfolio, particularly in our retail business, and a strict underwriting discipline. We had higher investment income, plus EUR 150 million, but this is not sustainable. It won't be repeated in future quarters. Our profit before tax is EUR 112 million, and we hope we can achieve our target for the year. I hope that answered your question. Your next question concerns the medium-term strategy implications of the corona crisis for the coming years from today's perspective. Well, knowing that this is crystal ball gazing, we tried to anticipate. COVID-19, I must admit that we try to be -- we want to be courageous. We want to factor in the opportunities that arise through new business models and investments that go beyond pure insurance. But we take it that we're going to see quite some volatility in our business and in the capital markets. Nevertheless, we are confident because the UNIQA Group has so many assets that they outweigh the risks. A final statement from Mr. Kozlik who says, "I wish all those involved every success for the future and good health." It's now a quarter past 1, and I still have about 30 questions from shareholders. If shareholders want to put additional questions, they are requested to do so by 1:35 at the latest. The 2 questions from Mr. Berger are still open. Severance pay, expenditure for severance pay in 2020, EUR 10.9 million. And you ask about training. How many people participated in training? 5,185 in Austria participated in training. Those were the open questions from Mr. Berger. As regards [ Mr. Stockhandle ], there is one question. Mr. Stockhandle refers to HR issues. Mr. Loger was our CFO. He became Minister of Finance, but he no longer is that. Isn't he being pursued by the white-collar crime prosecutor's office? Does he have an option to return? Do you normally do that, just let someone go and tell him to be careful? Now Loger is -- was at VIG. Are you happy that he has ended up with the competitor? Or would you like to have him back? Mr. Rothensteiner, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, asked me to answer the questions for him. Mr. Loger, when he left UNIQA in 2017, was not granted a right of return. He didn't ask for a right of return. We then reorganized our Management Board, and I was very happy that Kurt Svoboda agreed to assume the function of CFO on very short notice, and he served as CFO until the summer of last year. I think I'm not going to say more on that. There's one open question from Mr. Berger. How many people are in the back office? 74 people are working today in the back office, 17 here on site, 8 in the 50th home and 17 in the intermediate area from -- we have the notary and the auditor present from outside, but they are not part and parcel of the back office. And then we have the staff members of the service provider who provides sort of technical support for this meeting. And then I have one question from Mr. Peter Mickley. He gave us a statement to the end. He thanks all the staff members who dedicate themselves to their work. In terms of the pandemic, we're all hoping for better years in 2021 and 2022 to come and hope that we can hold this meeting again in the presence of our shareholders. We can only share your hopes, Mr. Peter Mickley. We now come to the questions of [ Mr. Baumuller ], and they all deal with sustainability and ESG. Before answering the questions and before Mr. Rothensteiner reads out the introduction and comments thereon, it's 25 questions altogether. Mr. Baumuller, I will be trying to phrase the questions and answers in a way that we can do that in one go. And I hope I will be able to address all your concerns. I will start with the preamble. Considering the scope of the following questions, could I ask you to read them out individually and answer in a focused and clear manner. This, I think, is appropriate in the interest of those who are speaking at the participants and will allow us to provide and listen to appropriate answers. Could you please allow for sufficient time after my questions have been answered for follow-up questions by myself or other shareholders? Mr. Rothensteiner, ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to introduce myself briefly. My name is [ Josef Baumuller ]. And the concerns, which I represent on behalf of many, are those of sustainability, especially sustainable company management and accountability. I'm delighted to take part for the first time in an AGM of UNIQA in a virtual manner. It's a company I've been engaged with for a long time and which works in an area that is characterized by high impact in public perception. And also in the perception of EU regulators, this company is gaining a particular attention. The following catalog of question ties into the comprehensive report provided by UNIQA. The purpose is to gain and provide a better understanding for the positions and goals of the company. And 2 questions, some issues. Some members of the Management Board might remember, I have been dealing with nonfinancial reporting in the company for a long period of time. Especially in the early years, I was among those stakeholders who were not fully convinced. There were personal atmospheric disturbances, which have led to disappointment and deception of some factors of the company. I will not detail that. I'd like to acknowledge the major progress that has been made. Your structured dealing with issues and technical element you've introduced a nonfinancial report that tries to convince with other facts and data than with pictures is something you should be aiming at -- when UNIQA certainly has adopted a meaningful approach better than many other companies within the ATX Prime. And for this commitment in the [ federal ] reports and the underlying content, I'd like to thank you most warmly. [indiscernible] is my hope that following questions do not seem ought too critical for you, but that you see them as a motivation to continue the way you have embarked upon with courage. At the same time, I'd like to be quite frank in saying that you need to progress in many different ways in order to be able to keep up with EU regulatory policies and also to overcome obstacles and to keep up with the competitors. When companies have spoken of, it's those companies that have visible and tangible results regarding sustainability and that are able to present that transparently to the outside world. And it is not UNIQA that is mentioned first. Other insurance companies seem to be having a lead, as is being proven by sustainability ratings. However, I'm firmly convinced that this might change if UNIQA becomes aware of its profile and integrate a stronger into its reporting and concludes the final steps of the still open issues. Finally, that is my concern, and I'd like to express my thanks on behalf of further shareholders to the staff of the company across all hierarchies. In 2020, you were facing many challenges far beyond your professional context. For UNIQA, it would not have been possible to carry on without the commitment of your staff. I wish you all the best, health, luck and hope for new normality, which we're all yearning for so that things become the way they perhaps never were, but better. And now my questions on nonfinancial reporting. Question 1 out of 25, your question relates to the well-founded and sound nonfinancial report is technically structured and has many annexes. And what is the essence or the soul of that report? What is the soul or essence of UNIQA Group is embedding sustainability in its core bases, a clear commitment to the Paris climate goals and implementing our own climate goal path, which we'll be drafting until 2025. Second question, picking up on that, which insurance group in Austria has a higher impact on sustainability, UNIQA or any of your competitors? What's your conclusion? And what is impact -- an impact-oriented investor? Mr. Baumuller, we focus on individual internal goals and on the strategy you've heard a lot today and on the resulting sustainability issues. And I refer to my answer to the first question. What is important for us is comparability of the ESG impact between companies. What is also important is that improvement is being achieved year-on-year and that we can make a European-wide contribution or global contribution. Third question, I'll try to summarize, is your implementation state regarding the Taxonomy Regulation of the European Union. You'll be -- are you prepared for the required reporting that derives from that? And I'd like to briefly -- have you explain the requirements of this regulation generally and specifically? Well, this Taxonomy Regulation is a simple classification of all operations regarding. And are they conducive to 6 European environmental goals -- environmental protection, promoting the protection of water and the seas, climate protections? I am not going to elaborate on that, just to give you a feel. And what is important, I'd like to emphasize that, for us is comparability and transparent disclosure. We welcome that, and that is something we stand for in Europe. And we are ready to implement the Taxonomy Regulation within the framework of those 6 goals. From our perspective, it is necessary that the data and the processes and standardization is something that exists. If this does not happen, then if everyone delivers their individual data, then there's no comparability. And this is not useful for shareholders or customers, and it's not transparent. In some areas of your activities, UNIQA falls under the scope of the disclosure regulation. Could you briefly explain the relevance of this legal act for the company? Moreover, the central problem of regulated financial market participants seems to be data availability on the part of business partners. Could you briefly comment on that from the perspective of UNIQA? And could you please also explain which specific solutions you are applying? Yes, it's correct. UNIQA, due to its size, is covered by the scope of the disclosure regulation. As mentioned earlier, it's important that there's an element of standardization and that we have compliance and comparability of the different investments. So the main challenge here is data availability and a process -- an underlying process. Your next question: in light of the first draft to EU directive improving the framework of standards for nonfinancial reporting on 21 April 2021, could you give us a first assessment of what need for action UNIQA has? What do you perceive? And what is your standpoint regarding this draft directive?

This draft Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, CSRD, provides formated information to embed sustainability. I can only refer to the fact that we have the data issue. It's also about a total structure in control. It's an embedding of the remuneration system, evaluation of the resilience and business opportunities, business risks and considering interest of all stakeholders. We see a need for action, Mr. Baumuller that this draft must be largely implemented in the years to come. And the challenge here will be, as mentioned earlier, we have to have data processes and apply the principle of proportionality to be able to disclose the figures and parameters and implement them in our strategy.

Next, in nonfinancial reporting, there's always a reference to measures that are being adopted by UNIQA Privatstiftung. As apparently, this foundation seems to play a special role in the sustainability activities of the UNIQA Group. Could you explain those activities?

Mr. Baumuller, we are here at the AGM of UNIQA Insurance Group, and we are not able, are not entitled to talk about the activities of UNIQA Privatstiftung.

Question #7, you refer to Page 2 of your nonfinancial report. And you speak of plans towards discussing ESG relevant stakeholder themes in future once a year in a stakeholder council and quarterly in an ESG Committee. Details are found in the sustainability strategy. Could you, in concise words, explain what is your objective? And how do you ensure you are being heard and that you have an impact? And is there any good practices or literature you based yourselves when designing those institutions?

Again, under the responsibility of Mr. Knapp, we set up an internal structure. We set up an ESG Committee where people from operative business take part, all units in cooperation with risk management so that we can submit proposals to the group executive those of ESG relevant issues. Moreover, and we wanted to, for the first time in the first quarter to have an external stakeholder council, dealing with internal, external experts from Austria and abroad who discuss those issues and subjects, and that will be all included in the materiality metrics. Could I interrupt you, please. I'm just taking a look at my watch, it's 1:33. Any shareholders who want to give any instructions to the proxies in particular to ask for motions, instruct their instructions on votes on one or several subjects of the agenda or to raise a protest on several, one of several proposed resolutions, could they kindly transmit those to their special proxies and use an e-mail to the address of your authorized proxy. The one you sent your proxy to. You'll find those e-mail addresses in the information on the organizational and technical requirements for participation in the AGM. And you'll find them now also in the insert of this live stream. You should be sending in those instructions within the next 20 minutes until 5 minutes to 2. Thank you very much. And we'll now carry on with answering your questions.

Mr. Baumuller's question #8, a pillar of the nonfinancial strategy of UNIQA. I'm interested in is a transparent reporting, applying meaningful metrics to assess the benefit created and the readiness to submit yourself to rating processes. The question is, what are meaningful metrics? What's your idea on that?

Well, meaningful metrics is something that revolves around making our own contribution in fighting climate change. Meaningful metrics are techniques, models and data sources which we can implement on our market and can make available in a standardized format. Derived from that, we have the path that charts towards attaining the Paris goals.

And then you also referred to value balancing alliance and the target of value balancing alliance, what is that?

That is a model for calculating the multidimensional value creation, economic models.

How is that implemented and how is that recorded in the balance sheet?

I think it's a good policy that UNIQA deals with that subject. And when we have clear and specific guidelines for implementation such as the natural capital accounting initiatives you mentioned. If all that is available and once all that is available, then UNIQA as a listed company will certainly implement them. However, for the time being, we don't see ourselves as a pioneer in the development of those standards. As I said earlier, we want to develop and design our own internal pathways to be able to implement them sustainably.

Question 9. In the nonfinancial report, you speak of ESG ratings on which you are orienting yourselves. An overview is contained on Page 2. The rating shown there are rather limited and less good than that of your competitors. Question, why is this issue gaining importance for UNIQA only now? And what specific results are you pursuing in your ESG ratings, such as best-in-class or others?

We started and then over the past 2 years, have been able to improve from D to C. We're among the top 20. And with the climate rating also, we've been able to evolve and become better. And for us, it is a good policy to improve step by step in the rating and our position and an honest and transparent ESG strategy to be implemented.

Question 10. On Page 12 of your nonfinancial report, you referred to a recommendation of the task force on climate-related disclosures. That is a major framework for further developing company reporting that is globally gaining importance. And referring to that, you consistently contribute to the climate-related goals in your company's strategy. However, you are saying that there are plans. You want to have the plans to establish an extended climate reporting strategy? Explain.

Well, there's a task force on climate-related disclosures together with risk management. And we can rely on such calculations and disclosures. I ask for your understanding that such calculations and models are based on models that take a long term for developing that need a sound database. And that would be an issue for us to deal with in 2022 and 2023. So that is something that is fledgling and being developed, but we are pursuing these developments.

Question 11. Follow-up question. A court judgment was passed in The Hague where Shell was obliged to bring down its CO2 levels by 2020 (sic) [ 2030 ] by 45% net compared to 2019. This judgment is deemed to have, be of high symbolic value. Do you see a need for adjustment in your corporate strategy or are there any similar ways of actions being brought in Austria?

In 2018, we decided to categorize oil and gas investments by negative criteria. From that, we have a goal to bring down the level of investments in those areas. And this is the path we have embarked upon.

Question 12. Could you state the 3 most important risks for UNIQA? Also opportunities.

The 3 major risks would be stranded investments, meaning a loss of value in an investment by climate impact. So that something comes from outside and cannot be measured. Increasing the amplitude and frequencies of acute and chronical environmental events, natural catastrophes, rise in temperature, which impact the portfolio. And then a reputational loss by delaying action or not acting at all.

Question #13, could you please explain the current calculations and assumptions about the impact on our financial assets and earnings situation if the Earth warms by 1.5 degree?

So a scenario calculation is required how this will affect UNIQA. I referred to the question I answered earlier on. We currently calculate it, starting on the asset side, such a scenario. But please, I ask for your understanding that the group has EUR 20 billion in terms of technical liabilities. And correlating assets and liabilities on the one hand and finding the right model and doing the proper modeling is something that takes time. And that is something we are preparing to be published in the FSCR (sic) [ SFCR ] 2023. And test results can be used for calculations earlier.

Question 14, the ecological figures of the nonfinancial report are presented as not being comparable in the time series presentation. This has to do with the acquisition of AXA, but also with a different coverage, apparently not complete coverage of other companies within the group. Could you please give us a like-to-like presentation, a justification and then further remarks on reporting.

Following up on the information provided by Mr. Kindl, I can tell you that the value of AXA in the fourth quarter of 2020, the acquisition became effective in the fourth quarter. Access to data was not possible from the very beginning for legal reasons. We do not want to use chart figures, and therefore, a like-to-like perspective cannot be presented. We're currently in the process of integrating the data to have figures from the AXA companies being integrated. Your next question related to data completeness. And I'd like to point out that not all companies of UNIQA are integrated in the supply of data in the first step. As with Solvency II and other EU regulatory steps, we are applying the proportionality principle, meaning we use the most impact companies and then the least impact companies at the end. Your question 15 refers to data completeness, and I think I've taken it already.

Question 16, materiality metrics on Page 7 of the nonfinancial report and which is the basis for your further reporting. According to what we read, we want to have an explanation of the specific measures on the relevance of the results from 2017 until 2020.

The materiality metrics will be redrafted in 2021. I said there is an ESG Committee, a stakeholder council. And including the new developments of recent weeks and months, we'll go into the new materiality metrics, which will then be presented next year.

The X-axis of the materiality metrics is ecological and social impact from the perspective of the UNIQA Group. This is just a modification of standard practice of the established GRI standards and raises the question of specific procedure and the validity of this dimension of analysis. Could you explain which method you use to locate identified nonfinancial issues along the X-axis?

I would like to refer to the answer I just gave you. We will have an updated materiality metrics. We are working with an external consultant with workshops and the business model and the new strategy will be reflected there.

Next question #18. In connection with the previous question. It has been known for quite some time that UNIQA initiated project in an exemplary manner in order to model the effect of nonfinancial matters on earnings financial position and assets. Could you explain these projects and also the models used in the context of IFRS 9? IFRS 9 obliges financial service providers to perform a test in which investments are analyzed for cash flows and payment inflows. Are they secure enough?

This is the so-called SPPI test. And we intend to involve a sustainability criteria in this test. As of December 2020, we have not identified any harmful applications by green or ESG bonds. And we have done further test runs for the first adoption of IFRS 9 as of 2023.

Question 19. Please indicate the extent to which nonfinancial issues are factored into the financial organization and the annual accounting process.

In finance and risk. We adopt a holistic approach. We will have a financial and a nonfinancial part in our annual reports. We are also preparing the involvement of controlling and performance management and to collect data there so that our criteria can be measured at regular intervals in institutionalized and standardized form because costs also have to be taken into consideration. This harmonization of data and reporting processes is a major concern of ours. And we will take into account that both the SFCR report 2023. This will be clearly outlined.

Next question to Mr. Rothensteiner. Mr. Baumuller asks me for a brief comment on the development of UNIQA in sustainability matters in general, and how is the status quo of the current report being assessed, which priorities will you be pursuing in the coming years?

Compared to other insurance companies, we look to the future with optimism. We have the right sustainability strategy. We are working on the annual milestone plans and catalogs of measures, and we have respectable ratings comparable to our competitors. Nevertheless, when it comes to implementation in day-to-day business in sales and advisory, we still have a lot of work to do. The strategy for our customers and investors has to be made convincing.

Next question, although under the current legal framework, nonfinancial reporting has to be evaluated by the Audit Committee. This is a requirement, which is often met. The proposal by the EU Commission of April 21, 2021 aims at improving nonfinancial reporting. I therefore ask you if the nonfinancial report was evaluated by the Audit Committee and which actions were taken.

The nonfinancial report was submitted to the Audit Committee. It was discussed and recommended for adoption by the Supervisory Board. The Supervisory Board also discussed the nonfinancial report and adopted it. The bodies concerned are able to provide their professional assessment, experts who are often involved within the framework of workshops.

Next question. A requirement frequently voiced recently is that for the position of a sustainability expert on the Supervisory Board, like the financial expert as well establish role profile. An example from ATX Prime is the Austrian Post and other companies who are considering the possibility. For the Supervisory Board of UNIQA, this has not been provided for yet. So what kinds of actions do you think need to be taken in this respect?

Of course, full compliance is in accordance with the law but I'd like to point out that it has a considerable benefit to have such an expert as was the case with the establishment of a financial expert on the Supervisory Board. The committees alone can't do that. We're not considering the inclusion of a sustainability expert on the Supervisory Board. In workshops and training programs, we are elaborating on new laws and provisions. Question #23. Within the framework of the AGM of Austrian Post on April 15, 2021, it was said that for the further development of the entire framework of sustainable business management in Austria, it may be important to have a voluntary external audit performed. That was also implied by Austrian Telekom on May 14. Now you're asking if a stricter audit in this context is being considered by UNIQA? We have an audit quality, which meets all requirements, and a limited assurance audit is being performed. And we're working on that. Of course, it's clear for us and could be regarded as a mandate that the forthcoming adaptation of the policy will lead to the application of stricter standards also in terms of quality assurance. We are planning for that in 2 to 3 years. Question 24, you're asking about the advisory services in connection with nonfinancial reporting. Altogether, the audit and the drafting of the nonfinancial report cost us EUR 100,000.

Question 25, that's Mr. Baumuller's last question. According to current opinion, credible sustainability efforts must be rooted in the governance mechanisms of a company if they are to have any effect. Implementation in remuneration policy as a point of reference for short and long-term variable remuneration components are indispensable. The remuneration report is rather short and it's impossible to see if sustainability targets are being emphasized there, although they would play an important role as an ecological and social dimension. Please briefly outline this and tell us which further development you're aiming at.

What you're saying about explicit ecological and social sustainability criteria is correct. We're aiming at a generally worded nonfinancial criteria, against which we will have to measure ourselves. And we are aware of the fact that a sustainability component will be essential in all these points. And we will proceed along these lines in accordance with the Paris targets. Those are my answers to the questions by Mr. Baumuller.

Mr. Berger has 3 more questions. The first question concerns COVID-19. How much did UNIQA spend on laptop computers and other equipment for employees?

EUR 1.9 million were spent on IT equipment, EUR 1.10 million for laptops. Altogether, EUR 1.6 million.

Second outstanding question. How many people were supported through rehabilitation?

1,639 people. Benefits from rehabilitation are reflected in our rates, but they don't account for a major part of our range of services. UNIQA replaces in many cases statutory health insurance. So those are top-up payments, but the major part is covered by statutory health insurance.

And then Mr. Berger says, thank you to the people in the back office for answering my questions. I also thank the management board for the excellent work done. I wish you good health. I hope we will have a physical AGM next year thanks to vaccination.

Well, we agree with you. I note that it's now 5 minutes to 2. We have a few more short questions. This is the last chance for shareholders. I will give you another 5 minutes for questions.

I have another question from Mr. Styler, The follow-up questions by Styler represented by its Managing Director, as follows: the 2 Signa bonds. Signa senior unsecured bond '12 to '22 and Signa senior unsecured '17 to '47, both classified as available for sale by the CEO. This is noteworthy. Question one, are there any liquid markets for these bonds? Question two, how often and at which nominal value has the 2017 bond been traded? And what's the price now? How often and at which nominal value was the 4.5% bond traded since its issuance in 2012 and what's the price today? A question to the PwC, what does available for sale according to IAS 39 mean? You didn't quite -- you didn't the question about the Ponzi scheme. I will explain to you what this is over a good bottle of wine. And I take it that we will need a second bottle of wine then. Before we answer Mr. Styler's question, 2 open questions from Mr. Peter Mickley. First question, what's the percentage by which premiums in supplementary health insurance increase per year. The increase between '19 and '20 was 3.01%, which is approximately the percentage which we applied in earlier years. Second question, you feel that the following questions have not been answered. Retroactive payment of the dividend. I take it you mean the good business year 2019 and not 2029, as it says, we would be hard put to it if we had to make a forecast for 2029. You said that in 2019, the dividend was to be between EUR 0.53 and EUR 0.55, but only EUR 0.18 were paid out. When will the difference be paid out?

Not at all, Mr. Peter Mickley. For 2020, we're paying out the same dividend as for 2019, which is EUR 0.18, a retroactive payment is not provided for. Question to PwC was put by Styler Investments. You asked that available for sale according to IAS 39 should be explained. IAS 39 classifies financial assets in different categories. One of these categories is available for sale, assets available for sale. This means that financial assets, financial instruments held on the asset side of the balance sheet have to be accounted for at market value and value fluctuations have to be shown. This differs from other classes according to IFRS, fair value. This means there are different classes of financial instruments available for sale and the instruments mentioned are Class 3. How often and at which nominal value where the 4% bonds traded and what's the price today? Unfortunately, we don't know how often the bond was traded. We didn't make any purchases or sales since 2017, and we've taken that the trading volume is low. The nominal value is the value which we indicated earlier. You're also asking how often and at which nominal value of 4.5% bond was traded. The same applies here, what I said earlier. And then you had one more question, what are liquid markets? Are there any liquid markets for these bonds at all? As already said, these are bonds, both a selected group of investors. As far as we know, they're only Germany and Austria, where the investors are. So it's not for a broad market. And according to IFRS 13, it's a different class. And they're classified in Level 3.

I see no more open questions on this topic. I continue those questions by the Grassroots Foundation, GmbH. There are questions about ESG and sustainability. First question. The current UNIQA corporate strategy on climate change in the form of a UNIQA guideline for responsible investments and the UNIQA corporate business standard was approved at the end of 2018. The statement by UNIQA on decarbonization was published in early 2019. It allows for underwriting existing coal-related customers as long as they follow reasonable sustainability criteria and transition plans as a result of the engagement dialogues and if necessary, over this period. How many coal clients has UNIQA stopped underwriting since the policy was improved due to the lack publishing a transition plan and coal phase out plans?

In 2020, 10 customers were identified as coal customers, 2 less than 2019. There were 14 inquiries from coal clients, which were declined because they did not meet these criteria.

Second question. Currently, UNIQA's corporate strategy on climate change does not exclude companies planning to developing or developing coal power plants, coal mines and coal-related infrastructure, the so-called coal developers, if they do not meet the coal company criteria used by UNIQA.

Any new coal-related business is excluded from underwriting irrespective of whether new or existing projects are involved. This stipulation includes automatically project developments.

Next question concerns the current climate change strategy of UNIQA. It uses the criteria to define a coal company based on the old version of the global coal exit list methodology. By when does UNIQA plan to update its current criteria, guiding direct investments and insurance in the coal sector?

The answer is that under the current methodology, these new guidelines are already included and such investments are not possible. The decarbonization strategy will not be exceeded by future requirements.

The next question, the consumption of fossil fuels continues to be the primary cause of disastrous climate change. The latest Production Gap Report, which UNEP and other institutions published in December 2020, found that the world needs to decrease fossil fuel production by approximately 6% per year between 2020 and 2030, minus 11% for coal, minus 4% for oil and minus 3% for gas to follow a 1.5-degree centigrade consistent path. Yet in contrast to this scientific conclusion, governments plan to increase fossil fuel production by 2% per year. The current UNIQA climate change strategy does not commit UNIQA to phase out underwriting of fossil fuels in line with a 1.5 degrees centigrade consistent path. In fact, it does not clarify what UNIQA's approach is to investing in new oil and gas projects, which according to the recent IEA Net Zero by 2050 scenario sees necessary to stop, except for the projects committed in 2021. By when does UNIQA plan to publish a climate change strategy update containing approach to investments in oil and gas companies, investments in oil and gas supply projects, end dates for investments in oil and gas companies, underwriting of existing oil and gas risks and underwriting of new oil and gas projects?

A simple brief answer. We do not have in our portfolio any oil and gas production and extraction risks. We have no such risks in our portfolio, and we do not underwrite them. They're excluded. So we have no strategy for or no additional policies for that.

The current UNIQA climate change strategy does not specify the time line by when UNIQA will completely phase out insurance of existing coal risks. The scientific consensus and other insurance and reinsurance market players including AXA Allianz and Swiss Re committed to ending coal underwriting by 2023 in OECD and EU member states and by 2040 in the rest of the world. By when does UNIQA plan to publish a road map for the total elimination of the coal risk from its underwriting portfolio?

Our road map is already stipulated in the underwriting standard and the decarbonization strategy and explains how we will pursue this development.

What percentage of non-life underwriting gross premiums in 2020 have been generated from contracts with coal clients?

In 2020, the share of gross written premium from contracts with coal was 3%.

Last question, is UNIQA committed to phasing out underwriting of fossil fuels in line with the 1.5-degree Celsius consistent path?

As we do not have any oil and gas risks in our portfolio, and we don't underwrite production and extraction risks, therefore, this type of risk is not part of the UNIQA risk appetite, and it won't be part of it in the future. So we do not consider additional underwriting standards necessary. And therefore, we do not need to further consider the 1.5 degrees centigrade consistent path in this respect. Those are the answers to the questions.

Thank you very much for that. I think we have covered all the tasks. Deadline has passed for submitting questions, but we have received questions from [ Mr. Leshan ]. Do we need some time to answer the questions? If that is the case, I would suspend the meeting. How many minutes? 5 minutes? Okay, ladies and gentlemen, then. We'll be back at 2:16. [Break]

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, for your patience. We have a number of questions remaining from Mr. Leshan, and could I ask Mr. Svoboda to start.

Mr. Leshan, one of your questions relates to the following. You said that the business with the Infinus Group was ended in 2011. Is it correct that after this end, up to the insolvency, there were existing contractual relations and commissions were paid in a double-digit amount? Answer? Is it true that in your formal function as Chief Risk Management, and this snowball system you identified, is it that you pushed for an exit? Next question, is it true that UNIQA in 2011 assessed the joint and liable risk at EUR 505 million? And is it true that the risk from the Infinus business were the topic of a meeting of the Board in summer 2011? Is it true that Gleiss Lutz law firm was commissioned preparing a legal comment that provided for different scenarios? Next question. Did the law firm Gleiss Lutz share your assessment of the risk being 0? How can it be combined that your risk is currently being assessed at 0? Why did the company not disclose the payments in an ad hoc disclosure to the capital market? And in November 2020, it disclosed -- it made an ad hoc disclosure to the capital market for an action considered to be unjustified. Were there any investigations by FMA in the past? Were there any negotiations with the applicants or their lawyers? What is the context in connection with the UNIQA complex?

Mr. Leshan, your questions don't concern the current business year. The risk from the claims has not been assessed at 0. However, we did not provide, make any provisions. Given the pending court case on the action brought by the special purpose vehicle and the claims out of court, we cannot provide any further information as this would result and could result in a substantive harm for UNIQA. And you were pursuing a special interest for the purposes of the proceedings brought by your company, your law offices against UNIQA, so at the detriment of UNIQA. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. I note that we have not any further questions that have not been answered. I ask special proxies. Have you received any motions, any instructions from the shareholders? Have you processed those instructions? If you don't plan to put any further motions and if you have instructions given in a way that you're ready for the vote, let us move to the vote. If this is not the case, could I ask those proxies who would like to report the contrary that there is.

There was no Chairman. I don't have any further requests for motions and all instructions have been processed.

Chairman, the same holds for myself.

Chairman, same for myself.

And the same for myself.

Thank you very much. Since none of the special proxies has indicated any such intention, I pass on and continue the special proxies to read out any motions received. We have not received any motions. So at today's AGM, we currently have 252 shareholders participating, and they have given special proxy to shareholders, to their special proxies representing 226,966,159 shares. The general meeting has the necessary quorum for all agenda items. I now sign the list of participants. I hand it over to the notary, Dr. Brix, to enclose it to the minutes. And it will be made available to the special proxies. I now move on to the vote agenda item 2, resolution on the appropriation of the net profit shown in the company's annual financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2020. And the Management Board and Supervisory Board are putting the motion as follows. The net profit for the financial year 2020 in the amount of EUR 55,722,592.34 shall be appropriated as follows: distribution of a dividend of EUR 0.18 for each no-par-value share carrying dividend rights, that is EUR 309 million, no-par-value shares in circulation as of 31 December 2020, less treasury shares held directly by the company on the day the resolution is adopted, representing a share of EUR 1 each in the share capital. The residual amount shall be carried forward to new account. Could I now ask the special proxies to vote on agenda item 2, the proposed motion on the appropriation of the net profit for the year, shown in the financial statements 2020. Anybody who's against, please raise their voting or instruction cards? Votes against, Oberhammer, Beckermann. Abstentions, please raise their cards, Beckermann, Oberhammer. We now move to the end of the vote. And here is the result. Yes votes, 226,947,071. That is 99.99%. Votes against, 520. Number of shares which votes have been validly cast, 226,947,591, and that represents 73.45% of the share capital. Abstentions 18,568. I know that the motion has been carried by a majority of vote and the AGM has resolved following the proposed motion by the Supervisory Board and the management, but to appropriate the net profit for the year for 2020 in the amount of 55,722,592.34 as follows: distribution of a dividend of EUR 0.18 per every dividend bearing no-par-value share, EUR 909 million (sic) [ EUR 309 million ] as per 31 December 2020, less treasury shares held directly by the company on the day that the resolution is adopted. The residual amount will be carried forward to new account. Agenda item 3 granting discharge and formally approving of the actions of the Management Board. We have a request for the floor. Protest is being filed by the shareholder 268 on agenda item 2 and 269, and I will read out a short reasoning, shareholder 269, Mr. Peter Mickley. The reason for his protest is as follows: For the good business year 2019, a mere EUR 0.18 per share was paid out. And in the bad business year, the remuneration of the Management Board is increasing significantly and of the Supervisory Board, to some extent, but there's no dividend for the shareholders. This is taken up with the minutes. This is not the case. Agenda item 3 granting discharge and formally approving the acts of the members of the Management Board and of the Supervisory Board for the business year 2020. Here, the proposed resolution is as follows: to formally approve of the actions for the members of the Management Board of the company for the business year 2020. The Management Board and the Supervisory Board of the company are proposing, pursuant to Section 108 (1) of the Stock Corporation Act, proposing that the AGM resolve and take votes in separate voting, namely that the members of the Supervisory Board be formally approved of their acts for the business year 2020. Could we now have the special proxies voting on the members of the Management Board? If you're against this motion, please raise your card. Vote against, Beckermann. Abstentions, Beckermann, Oberhammer. Yes votes, 226,844,461, again, 99.99%. No votes, 20. Number of shares for which votes have been validly cast, 226,844,000, representing 73.41% of the share capital. Abstentions, 121,678. I note that the motion has been carried by the required majority. And the members of the Management Board have formally been approved of their acts. Again, we have a protest by [ Mr. Karl Schmeier ], card 268. Could I now have the proxies voting on the, formally approving the acts of the members of the Supervisory Board. Votes against, Beckermann, Oberhammer. Abstentions, Oberhammer, Beckermann, abstentions. Yes votes, 223,695,321, 98.611%. No votes, 3,149,660, 1.38%. Number of shares which votes have been validly cast, 226,844,981, representing 73.41% of the share capital. Abstentions, 121,178. I note that the motion has been carried by the required majority and that the AGM has formally approved that the actions of the members of the Supervisory Board for the business year 2020. Again, we have a protest by shareholders, Mr. Karl Schmeier, 268 and Mr. Peter Mickley 269. Agenda item 4, the election of the auditor of the nonconsolidated and consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year 2022. And here, the motion is to elect PwC Wirtschaftsprüfung GmbH as auditor of the nonconsolidated and consolidated financial statements for the year 31 December 2022. Could the proxies now proceed to the vote. Anybody against raise their cards, Nauer, Oberhammer, Beckermann. Thank you very much. Abstentions, Beckermann, Nauer, Oberhammer, Wilfling. Thank you very much for that. Yes, votes 226,819,142, which is 99.98%. No votes 25,449. 0.11%. Number of shares which votes have been validly cast, 226,844,591, representing 73.41% of the share capital. Abstentions, 121,568. I note that the motion has been carried by required majority, and the AGM has elected PwC Wirtschaftsprüfung GmbH as the auditor of the nonconsolidated and consolidated financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2021. Again, we have a protest by Mr. Karl Schmeier, 268. This is taken note of says the notary. Agenda item 5, resolution on the remuneration report indicating the remuneration of the Management Board and the Supervisory Board for the fiscal year 2020. I recall that this vote is a recommendation in nature, and the text is as follows. The remuneration report indicating the remuneration for the Management Board and the Supervisory Board for fiscal year 2020, as attached to this proposed resolution as Enclosure 1, and available on the website of the company as entered in the Companies Register, shall be adopted. Could I now ask the proxies to proceed to the vote. Votes against, Beckermann, Oberhammer, Wilfling. Abstentions, Beckermann, Nauer, Oberhammer. Thank you very much. Yes votes, 224,962,124, which is 99.7%, No votes, 1,864,443, 0.82%. Number of shares which votes have been validly cast, 226,826,568, representing 73.4% of the share capital. Abstentions, 139,592. Thank you very much for that. I note that the motion has been carried by the required majority. And the AGM has adopted the presented remuneration, mode for the remuneration of the Supervisory Board and the Management Board for the business year 2020 as enclosed in Enclosure 1 and available on the website of the company entered in the Companies Register. And here, we have a protest, Mr. Karl Schmeier and shareholder Peter Mickley, 269. Okay. This is recorded in the minutes. Agenda item 6. Item resolution on the daily allowances and the remuneration of the members of the Supervisory Board. And here, the text is that the remuneration of the members of the Supervisory Board shall amount to a total of EUR 790,000 for the fiscal year 2020. The distribution among the individual members of the Supervisory Board is subject to resolution by the Supervisory Board. The daily allowances for members of the Supervisory Board shall be set at EUR 500 per meeting day and per participating member of the Supervisory Board. Could we now proceed to the vote. Votes against, Beckermann, Oberhammer. Abstentions, Nauer, Oberhammer, Beckermann, Wilfling. Thank you very much. And here is the result. Yes votes, 226,715,503, 99.99%. No votes, 520, 0.0002294%. Number of shares, which will have been validly cast, 226,770,023 (sic) [ 226,716,023 ], representing 73.37% of the share capital. Abstentions, 250,136. And I assume there will be a protest. Yes, we have a protest here, shareholder 268 and 269. Thank you very much for that. I note that the motion has been carried by the required majority and the company has resolved on the amount of the compensation, altogether, EUR 790,000 with the distribution being left to a decision by the Supervisory Board and also a per diem of EUR 500 per meeting day and per participant for every member of the Supervisory Board. The votes have now come to an end. I have a question to put to the special proxies. Are there any statements you'd like to make, in particular? Would you wish to launch a protest by any one of your shareholders you represent?

No.

Okay. This brings us to the end of the voting process. And I note that this brings us to the end of this general meeting. Could I ask the notary to take the minutes. I'd like to thank, in particular, the notary, for many years of successful work for the company at its AGMs. And I'd like to close this meeting by thanking the organizational team behind the wings. Things are working so smoothly. So you wonder, wouldn't it be better to keep things as they are now? Anyway, I'd like to thank the camera team that put us into a good light and also by the interpreters who are actually doing a wonderful job in translating all those difficult terms. So thank you very much for your attendance, and I close today's meeting. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]