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players in the insurance industry in these markets and to gain a position among the five largest
market participants.
In recent years, the Vienna Insurance Group has completed a number of acquisitions and entered
a number of new CEE markets. The table below provides an overview of the Vienna Insurance
Group’s total market position including life and non-life as at December 31, 2007 (except for Albania,
Bulgaria, Estonia, Georgia, Serbia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine and excluding the Target Companies)
and the year of market entry in the countries in which it operates:
Country/Company Market position Year
Austria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1824
Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . negligible 1990
Slovakia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1990
Czech Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1990
Hungary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1996
Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 1998
Croatia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1999
Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . negligible 1999
Liechtenstein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . n.a. 2000
Romania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2001
Bulgaria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2002
Belarus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2002
Serbia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2003
Ukraine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2004
Slovenia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . n.a. 2004
Georgia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2005
Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . n.a. 2006
Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2007
Albania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2007
Macedonia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . n.a. 2007
Estonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2007
Latvia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2007
Lithuania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 2007
History of the Vienna Insurance Group
Company History
The enterprise was formed from several insurance companies which merged with each other over
time. Its origins date back to 1824, the year in which “Wechselseitige k.u.k. priv. Brandschadenversicherungsanstalt”
(mutual imperial and royal private fire insurance institute) was incorporated, to 1839
when “Allgemeine wechselseitige Capitalien- und Rentenanstalt” (mutual capital and pension institution),
the first specialty life insurance company of the (Austrian) monarchy, later named “Janus
wechselseitige Lebensversicherungs-Anstalt in Wien” (Janus mutual life insurance institution in
Vienna), began its operations, and to 1898 when the Vienna City Counsel decided to set up its own
municipal insurance company, the “Städtische Kaiser Franz Joseph-Jubiläums-Lebens- und Rentenversicherungs-Anstalt”
(municipal emperor Franz Joseph anniversary life and pension insurance
institution), which began operations on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of the
reign of Emperor Franz Joseph. As a result of changes in the political climate, after World War I the
company name was changed into “Gemeinde Wien Städtische Versicherungsanstalt” (municipality of
Vienna municipal insurance institution) and its business operations were subsequently expanded to
include non-life insurance. In 1923, the “Wechselseitige Brandschadenversicherungs-Anstalt” merged
with “Janus wechselseitige Lebensversicherungs-Anstalt in Wien” to become “Wechselseitige Brandschaden
und Janus”. In 1929, the “Gemeinde Wien Städtische Versicherungsanstalt” acquired a 50%
holding in “Union Versicherungs-Aktiengesellschaft”, thus incorporating new lines of property-casualty
insurance (transport, hail and animal insurance) into its business. In 1934, it acquired the share
certificates issued by “Wechselseitige Krankenversicherungsanstalt” and assumed the management of
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