SIGNAL IDUNA Group 2005
Surpluses clearly raised - Equity capital base further strengthened - Reorganisation in composite domain

Dortmund / Hamburg. The SIGNAL IDUNA Group is satisfied with its performance in the business year 2005. The operational result improved by 15.3 per cent from 710.5 million EUR in 2004 to 819.1 million EUR. "Thanks to the improved surplus situation we can further consolidate our equity capital base, which is quite comfortable now in comparison with others in the market", said Reinhold Schulte, the President of the Executive Board, at the business results press conference in 2006 in Hamburg.

Schulte announced that the indemnity and accident insurance activities so far conducted in two companies SIGNAL Unfall and NOVA Allgemeine will probably be integrated into the SIGNAL IDUNA Allgemeine Versicherungs Aktiengesellschaft in autumn this year. With this reorganisation, the market position of SIGNAL IDUNA in the composite domain will be strengthened and future-oriented.

The premium income of the Group's insurance companies grew by 43.2 million EUR to 4.6 billion EUR. The moderate increase can be attributed to the decline of full health insurance for political reasons, the competitive premium attrition in the car insurance, as well as the deliberately reluctant activity related to single premiums in life insurance.

The gross expenses for insurance claims of all insurance companies of the SIGNAL IDUNA Group were reduced by 111.4 million EUR to 3.6 billion EUR in 2005.

The measures aimed at cost reduction brought further success. In 2005 the Group's overall costs fell. Until 2010 cost reductions amounting to 200 million EUR a year are planned.

In the previous year, the financial assets of the SIGNAL IDUNA Group rose by 2.1 billion EUR to 36.3 billion EUR. The capital investment portfolio of the Group's insurance companies - 30.1 billion EUR - brought net gains amounting to 1.5 billion EUR in 2005. The net yields of 5.0 per cent remain above average.

The average number of employees (including independent field staff and trainees) of the SIGNAL IDUNA Group amounted in the business year 2005 to 13,120 persons, i.e. 624 workers or 4.5 per cent less than last year.

SIGNAL Krankenversicherung a.G.

SIGNAL Krankenversicherung a.G., Dortmund, established in 1907 as a self-help institution of handcraft and today the fourth biggest private health insurer in Germany, registered brisk business in additional insurance in the past year. The total health insurance portfolio could be raised by 28,716 new customers. The number of the substitutively insured fell by 4,555 while the number of the additionally insured rose by 33,271.

On 31.12.2005 around 2 million people were insured in SIGNAL Kranken. Among them 502,080 had a substitutive health insurance, which makes 25.8 per cent of all insured people, and 1.4 million had a complementary insurance.

The gross written premiums rose to almost 2.0 billion EUR.

The benefits for our customers (gross expenses of insurance claims) increased by 1.7 per cent, which is clearly less than last year (5.2 per cent). The main causes of the increase were again dental services with a growth of 7.1 per cent and an increase in expenses for outpatient services by 2.2 per cent.

In 2005 SIGNAL KRANKEN distributed 39.9 million EUR as contribution refund for 138,000 benefit-free insured persons in eligible tariffs. This way of surplus utilisation will be continued beyond the year 2005.

The insurance-related share in the overall  results improved significantly just like last year, rising from 9.2 per cent to 11.6 per cent. This indicates in percentage terms of the gross written premiums, how much remains from the premiums after the deduction of expenses for claim and operational costs. Out of the gross surplus 236.5 million EUR (last year: 186.7 million EUR) of the reserve was allocated for performance-related contribution refund. Thus SIGNAL Kranken passes 93.2 per cent (last year: 92.3 per cent) of the generated surplus onto the insured. Also in 2005 the reserve funds were significantly strengthened, available among others for future premium relief. In the reserve for performance-related contribution refund 497.0 million EUR were made available (last year: 338.1 million EUR) for precautionary funds.

The share of equity capital - in relation to the acquired gross premiums - rose from 15.5 per cent to 16.8 per cent. Therewith the excellent equipment with own funds, which has also been confirmed by the ASSEKURATA rating agency for SIGNAL Kranken, could be further improved.

SIGNAL IDUNA sees considerable growth opportunities in the health care market and therefore launched five new health insurance products in the second quarter of this year:
- A new fully-fledged offer for beginners concerning private full protection (RK plus)

- A new special substitutive health insurance tariff for the citizens of the new federal states (VO)

- A new comfortable option in private additional insurance protection for the over 60 age group, which focuses on dental prosthesis services

-   Two new independent additional dental tariffs for people with compulsory health insurance, which help to avoid high contributions of their own to dental prostheses (DENT-FEST and DENT-MAX)

IDUNA Vereinigte Lebensversicherung aG für Handwerk, Handel und Gewerbe
SIGNAL IDUNA Pensionskasse AG

A clear increase in the operational result of 24.4 per cent to 353.3 million euro was achieved by the life insurance companies of the SIGNAL IDUNA Group compared with the previous year. IDUNA Leben still has an outstanding position in the total return of its customer assets: with 4.8 per cent (including 0.3 per cent of the final surplus share) it maintained a higher-than-average level and comes second among the 20 biggest life insurers.

The ASSEKURATA rating agency graded IDUNA Leben in 2005 "A+", i.e. "excellent". In the sub category "security" it was again awarded the best grade of "excellent".

The gross written premiums of IDUNA Leben rose by 1.4 per cent or 20.3 million EUR to 1.5 billion EUR. In total, the contributions of all life insurance companies  of the Group increased by 44.7 million EUR, which corresponds to about 2.8 per cent.

IDUNA Leben had by the end of the business year 2005 2.4 million contracts in its portfolio. It paid about 1.6 billion EUR to its customers. In new business there was a clear demand for pension insurance products, which accounted for 62 per cent of the new policies. IDUNA Leben is among the ten biggest providers of private pension insurance.

After the year 2004, which was marked with special developments, new policy contributions diminished as expected in the previous business year: they fell by 19 per cent. This was caused by the commencement of the retirement income law (Alterseinkünftegesetz) on 1.1.2005.

In the business year 2005 the capital investments of IDUNA Leben grew by 2.0 per cent to 18.1 billion EUR (last year: 17.7 billion EUR). The net gains from capital investments rose by 2.2 per cent to 900.1 million euro. This corresponds - just like last year - to a net interest return of 5.0 per cent.

SIGNAL IDUNA Pensionskasse AG, a hundred per cent subsidiary company of IDUNA Leben, augmented the premium income by 26.7 per cent from 86.6 million EUR to109.6 million EUR. At present the company is in charge of 156,439 contracts (previous year: 135,533 contracts) and registered an asset contribution of 116.6 million EUR (previous year: 101.3 million EUR) on 31.12.2005.

Positive trends are also emergedin the current business year: in total the life insurance companies of the Group were able to raise the premium sum in new business by 10 million EUR to 681 million EUR in the first three months of the year.

The life insurers of SIGNAL IDUNA offer adequate choices for their customers in connection with the retirement income law (Alterseinkünftegesetz) and the growing demand for private protection in all three sections. Special attention should be given to the growing importance of staff coverage with the new premium - disability insurance introduced at the beginning of 2006.

SIGNAL Unfallversicherung a.G., NOVA Allgemeine Versicherung AG, ADLER Versicherung AG, PVAG Polizeiversicherungs-AG, ALLRECHT Rechtsschutzversicherung AG

The Non-Life insurance companies of the SIGNAL IDUNA Group closed the year 2005 with a pleasing improvement of the surpluses. The result before tax rose considerably from 53.9 million EUR to 78.4 million EUR (national composites). This corresponds to a growth of 45.5 per cent. The claims/costs ratio improved again with claims expenses falling by 7.1 per cent to 593 million EUR, i.e. to 93.6 per cent (previous year: 97.4 per cent).

The gross written premiums in the (national) composite amounted to 947.6 million EUR (previous year: 970.5 million euro). This could be attributed to the positive development of the commercial non-life, transport and third party liability insurance activities of last year. The premium growth amounted to 3.8 per cent. Special products for middle-class customers contributed to this pleasing development, especially the particularly efficient multiple risks policy for handcraft.

SIGNAL IDUNA has not decreased the premiums in motor insurance for profit reasons and thus deliberately accepted the competitive disadvantages. Moreover, SIGNAL IDUNA carried out a portfolio reorganisation especially in the commercial business and eliminated the contracts with particularly high number of claims. 

SIGNAL IDUNA expects a growth, especially in accident insurance, in connection with the new rates package introduced in 2006. This focuses in particular on a comprehensive expansion of services, including those specially destined to meet the needs of senior citizens.

SIGNAL Versicherung AG, Ungarn

SIGNAL Versicherung AG, Budapest, founded in 1993, gained a profit of 4.8 million EUR in the business year 2005 and thus achieved the best result in the company's history. With a growth of 1.7 per cent the company acquired gross written premiums of over 38 million EUR. In the last six years the premiums of SIGNAL Versicherung AG, Budapest, have been doubled. The company, that offers life, accident and property insurance (without motor insurance) so far, will extend its activity to the domains of health and motor insurance.

SIGNAL IDUNA Polen Versicherung AG
SIGNAL IDUNA Polen Lebensversicherung AG

SIGNAL IDUNA Poland increased its gross written premiums by 70 per cent to 13 million EUR in the previous business year. As the first insurer, SIGNAL IDUNA Polen introduced a special private health insurance model into the Polish market on December 1st, 2005. It offers companies the possibility to conclude collective agreements for their employees. In Poland SIGNAL IDUNA Polen was chosen as the "Insurance company of the year 2005" for the introduction of this innovative product ("Alicja" innovation award). In travel insurance SIGNAL IDUNA Polen is the market leader.

In addition to the engagements in Poland and Hungary it is intended to expand into other South and East European markets.

SIGNAL IDUNA Rückversicherungs AG, Schweiz

SIGNAL IDUNA Rückversicherungs AG having its registered office in Zug (Switzerland), which started in 2004, increased its equity capital to 100 million Swiss Franks. The company now has a comfortable equity base to extend its activities.

CONRAD HINRICH DONNER BANK AG

CONRAD HINRICH DONNER BANK AG is satisfied with its performance in 2005. It was able to expand its position as a modern private bank of the SIGNAL IDUNA Group. The high solution competence of the bank in all investment and protection issues - based on intensive financial analysis - is becoming, combined with the state-of-the-art online technique, an increasingly unique selling point in the market sector. This is particularly visible in the increased membership in asset management and online account users in relation to previous years. The bank was also successful in currency and interest management for institutional clients. A significant contribution to the positive business results in 2005 was the surplus of interests and commissions, which increased by 2.8 million EUR, with a simultaneous reduction in administrative costs by 0.8 million EUR.

HANSAINVEST Hanseatische Investment GmbH

Thanks to the favourable development in the national and international capital markets all funds implemented by HANSAINVEST Hanseatische Investment GmbH, Hamburg, and managed by SIGNAL IDUNA Asset Management GmbH (SIAM) had a positive performance. The total volume of publicly offered and special funds managed by HANSAINVEST rose by almost 7 per cent to the new record value of 7.7 billion EUR. The average revenue in publicly offered funds could be clearly improved. In total it amounted to 275 million EUR in 2005 (medium return flow in 2004: 41.5 million EUR). In the past year HANSAINVEST implemented the "HI Volksbank Global Trend", developed with the Österreichischen Volksbanken-AG (ÖVAG), Vienna. HANSAINVEST has already raised five Hedge funds.

SIGNAL IDUNA Bauspar AG

SIGNAL IDUNA Bauspar AG, Hamburg, closed its 2005 sales performance in the area of building savings with a plus of 5.0 per cent in comparison with last year and now is at the same level as the whole market. It repositioned itself by numerous fundamental changes in the financing offer and service. Among them were the modular construction system for financing as well as special conditions for home and anticipated loans. As the latest proposal the building association offers the flexible and adjustable rate system FREIraum. Six options between 40 and 70 per cent loans are available. The new rate can be used for the modernisation of living space and offers an ideal alternative to a mortgage loan, with guaranteed interest security until the end of financing.

SIGNAL IDUNA Asset Management GmbH (SIAM)

SIGNAL IDUNA Asset Management GmbH (SIAM), Hamburg, successfully developed in the previous year. The SIAM operates in three business fields: portfolio management for individual companies of the SIGNAL IDUNA Group, marketing and sales services for the financial subsidiary companies and special services for customers and agents in the customer service centre of the financial subsidiary companies. In this way it is the link between the financial subsidiary companies, the insurance segment and the customers.

Dortmund / Hamburg, June 13th, 2006
Press office

Hannes Tutschku
Tel.: (0231) 135-2023
Fax (0231) 135-39 2023
E-Mail: hannes.tutschku@signal-iduna.de

Priska Flinzer-Frömmling
Tel.: (040) 4124-3834
Fax: (040) 4124-4026
E-Mail: priska.flinzer-froemmling@signal-iduna.de

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