Vienna Insurance Group history

However, his vision did not become a reality until 24 December 1824 – the date on which Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein was officially established, more than 20 years later.

The second forerunner of today’s Vienna Insurance Group can look back upon a similarly successful history: In 1839, the “Allgemeine wechselseitige Capitalien- und Rentenversicherungsanstalt” opened for business in Vienna.

Though 1867 is the year in which Donau Versicherung is officially acknowledged to have been established.

In a Vienna City Council meeting on 11 February 1898 a series of measures which the Imperial capital intended to implement to mark the occasion were presented.

In 1919 – with the Habsburg Monarchy having fallen apart, and Austria having become a small republic – the name was changed to “Gemeinde Wien – Städtische Versicherungsanstalt”. Furthermore, various areas of property insurance were added to the company’s range of products in a step-by-step fashion.

First, in 1924, the former “Wechselseitige k.k. priv.

In 1929, Wiener Städtische took an equity stake in “Union Versicherungs-Aktiengesellschaft,” thus acquiring the concession for new areas of the property insurance business.

Gemeinde Wien – Städtische Versicherungsanstalt joins forces with Wechselseitige Brandschaden und Janus allgemeine Versicherungs-Anstalt auf Gegenseitigkeit in 1938.

The first meeting of members takes place in 1947 and the company is renamed Wiener Städtische Wechselseitige Versicherungsanstalt.

So in 1952, the architect Erich Boltenstern was commissioned to construct a modern office building.

The Ringturm tower opens on 14 June 1955, about one month after the signing of Austria’s new state treaty.

In 1958 – which is as far back as the statistics of the Austrian Insurance Association go – overall insurance premiums in Austria amounted to the equivalent of 202 million presentday Euros.

Then, in 1965, Wiener Städtische introduced the first comprehensive household and homeowner’s insurance product.

By way of comparison: 1972 saw premium volumes exceed the billion-Euro mark for the first time.

After the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, VIG expanded rapidly from a purely Austrian business into an international group.

The company established itself in the Austrian market over the next thirty years, and finally took a chance on its first expansion into the CEE region in 1990.

Kooperativa, which began doing business in March of 1991, did quite well right from the beginning.

In 1992 Wiener Städtische’s insurance operations were transferred to a stock corporation.

In 1994, the Company was floated on the Vienna Stock Exchange.

Since 1996, Vienna Insurance Group has gradually continued its expansion direction into Central and Eastern Europe.

Since 1998 the lobby has been home to the internationally acclaimed "Architektur im Ringturm" exhibition series, which showcases architecture from Austria and the CEE region.

The three regional divisions based in Prague, Brno and Bratislava were transformed into independent companies, and 1999 saw the Prague and Brno companies merged and the new company’s main headquarters established in Prague.

The cooperation between Erste Group and VIG began in Slovakia in 2003.

Following a stock split, the company’s shares are listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange’s ATX index in September 2005.

The “Vienna Insurance Group” umbrella brand was introduced at the beginning of 2006.

In 2007, Vienna Insurance Group was able to further expand its geographic presence in Central and Eastern Europe by conducting major acquisitions.

VIG shares have also been listed on the Prague Stock Exchange since 2008.

And in 2010, total premium volume reached EUR 16.7 billion.

The 2014 entry into the Moldovan market filled the final remaining gap in coverage of the CEE region.

VIG in the capital market IR news 2015