Dear shareholders. Now comes the great thing. The word dear in English can be translated in different ways in Finnish and in Swedish, and I am now going to say dear in the meaning beloved. We are once again gathered here to look at our pretty good result from Sampo, the performance that I think we are even a bit too well accustomed to. There seems to be something special about our Sampo, the source of endless wealth. It is not thanks to me, but I will come back to that. We have a good year behind us. We also have some years of change behind us. This is the first time in three years when we meet face to face, and a lot has happened during these three years.
In practice, the decisions concerning what Sampo is all about were implicitly made when we appointed Torbjörn Magnusson as the Group CEO, and we reevaluated our strategy, based on which we have taken step after step to make Sampo a P&C insurance group. There have been several changes. We have divested our ownership in Nordea. We have acquired Hastings. We have restructured smaller parts of the group, and today we are bringing to you the last significant piece of this change, namely the separation of our life insurance and asset management business called Mandatum into a separate company. Sampo was never unchangeable in history and like in the Finnish national epic, Kalevala, it was always a bit mythical, changing and exciting, even though P&C insurance is often thought to be very dull and boring. Sampo was always Finnish in the best sense of the word.
We have not been waving the Finnish flags, we have not been speaking about the core of Finnishness, but we have always been speaking about how Finnishness cannot be defended unless we can afford to do that. That is why we always set our financial targets above all nationalism. It does not mean that nationality is not important, but you have to be able to afford it. We produce value for our shareholders, and if we can do that being a Finnish company, that is all the better. Sampo has done a lot for Finland. We have always been a big taxpayer in Finland, and during my time, which is quite a long time, we have built the largest and most profitable insurance group in the Nordics. And let me remind you, we have also brought back to Finland the largest bank in the Nordics.
The blue and white colors, in other words, Finnishness, is part of the DNA of Sampo, but this is not something we advertise every day. Our main job, as I always say, is to make financial profit and create shareholder value. That is why it is my duty in this opening speech, as tradition goes, to say a few words of wisdom to the political leaders of this country. This time, these words are pretty simple. Referring to this picture, my message is this cannot go on. GDP per capita in Finland is at the same level as 15 years ago. You may shrug your shoulders to that, but if you see what is happening to our sclerotic neighbors, Sweden, who miraculously won the Eurovision Song Contest, has been doing much better than Finland even in this contest. So to quote Shakespeare, there is something wrong in this country.
There's something rotten in this country. I'm a bit optimistic now because discussions are ongoing about this matter in the government negotiations and among the people. I was speaking about reforming the unemployment benefits in Finland and the tax reforms. This is something we have to get rid of. We have to get the economy growing. Having a major government deficit is not the reason, it's a symptom. Without economic growth, no one can remedy the national economy. That's why we have to focus on growth, and that's why we need to focus on those who are making the growth. In other words, companies, entrepreneurs, technology, research. So much for the economy in Finland. Finland will have to transform. Sampo has already transformed.
23 years ago, when I was negotiating the merger of my bank at the time, Mandatum, to Sampo-Leonia, my predecessor's predecessor's predecessor's predecessor as the chairman of the board, looked me into the eye and asked me, "Nalle, how long will you be doing this?" I said, "Well, three or perhaps five years." Jukka looked at me sadly and said, "Five years is a pretty short time." I said, "Well, okay, I will commit to those five years, but I won't stay much longer." That was the stupid words of a young man. It was 23 years ago. As many of you know, I was first the Group CEO, and then I've been the chairman of the board for 14 years. Those have been excellent years for me. They have been good years for Sampo. We have made a good number of deals that explain Sampo's development.
The most significant of them was the acquisition of If. It was strange somehow, because we fell in love with P&C Insurance because we had been explaining that it would be a slowly growing and boring business, and that was the best deal I ever made, and I will never make any deals that are as good as the acquisition of If. But it wasn't only the acquisition, it was what happened afterwards. That's why I would like to extend my greatest thanks to Torbjörn, because he's the one who created the modern If. More widely than that, I would like to say that this is never a one-man show. In fact, running companies is rarely, if ever, the job of chairman of the Board. It's usually the CEOs who do the job.
I have had the pleasure and honor to work with excellent CEOs, first Kari Stadigh, and then Torbjörn Magnusson. They are those who should be thanked for this success. We have succeeded because we have managed in managing these companies, and on the side, we have made a couple of deals which have been pretty good themselves. So I would like to thank these persons and a number of other members of Group Executive. I won't list them all. I'm looking at them here in the front row, and I would like to extend my warmest thanks to you all, and through you, and over you, to all employees in Sampo, because it has been fantastic. In fact, it seems that many of you have been enjoying it as well. But now, the time has come for me to step down.
Believe me or not, it doesn't feel all that bad. One reason for that is that for five years already, we have been transforming Sampo into a company that is no longer my company. It is clearly Torbjörn's company, and it will be Antti's company. It is an insurance company, and anyone who has been listening to my bad jokes about insurance business will understand that I'm not an insurance guy. We have other insurance guys, and they are excellent guys. But they're different, and they are extremely skilled at what they're doing. The moment of departure is always a bit sad. There are always moments of nostalgia or nuances of nostalgia, and I think it's a strange thing that's developed in the course of evolution. It has to do with defending your children, and so on and so forth.
As humans, we are used to being a bit sad at times of separation. But separation is also a moment of reform. It's about renewal. It's a creative disruption. Anyone who knows me will know that there's going to be a lot of life left for me outside these meeting rooms. I am deeply grateful that I have been able to work with you who are sitting in the front row. Especially, I am grateful for the extreme confidence that myself and all of us have been given by you shareholders. These have been fantastic years. I will write about them in the third part of my memoirs that will only be published in two and a half years' time, and you will have to wait until that time if you want to read them. My warmest thanks to you all.
At this point, I propose to you that we elect Mikko Heinonen, the chairman of the meeting. After that, I remember that I first have to open the meeting. It is now opened, and Mikko Heinonen has been elected. This was my speech. Thank you for everything.
Dear shareholders and guests, I'm delighted to see so many of you here. Our first physical AGM since 2019. In the meantime, we have roughly doubled the number of shareholders to almost 200,000. Let's turn to the presentation. At Sampo, we take great pride in our high-quality insurance operations and our excellent financial results. For 2022, this feeling of pride is as strong as ever. We outperformed our group level targets by a margin. Both our underwriting results and combined ratios were clearly better than the corresponding targets. We also took further steps to further our strategic agenda, focusing on P&C insurance. We completed the exit from our Nordea Holding in April last year, ahead of the schedule from the 2021 Capital Markets Day. Furthermore, we continue to run a strong but efficient balance sheet as we distribute excess capital to our shareholders.
In total, we have now announced nearly EUR 4 billion of excess capital returns, and we have repurchased more than 47 million Sampo shares since 2021. In 2022, we delivered solid results, supported by the excellent performance of our Nordic P&C business. We also saw strong growth both at the group level and in our largest business area, If P&C. Group gross written premiums grew by 6% to EUR 8 billion. If P&C grew across all its business areas with the most positive developments in the Baltic and the industrial business areas. In the U.K. market, we also had really strong growth in the home insurance market. As I am sure you are all aware, interest rates increased very rapidly in 2022, which benefited us by adding more than EUR 200 million in annual earnings power. Our balance sheet remains very strong, with a solvency coverage at year-end of 210%.
Strong solvency is, of course, very helpful in volatile times, and it further strengthens our resilience and ensures the long-term continuity of our operations. We remain committed to disciplined capital management, and continuing to execute on this remains a priority for the company. Looking then at our performance against financial targets, our main lever for value creation is growing the underwriting profits. I am proud of our achievement in reporting an underwriting profit growth, which has clearly exceeded the targets both for 2021 and 2022. The group underwriting profit in 2022 was the highest ever reported by Sampo and 13% above the year before. The growth rate is roughly twice that of our target. Our combined ratio development has been well ahead of the target also due to robust underlying performance, and we delivered a combined ratio of 82.1%, nearly three percentage points ahead of the group level target.
Looking at the segments, If P&C's performance has been excellent and delivering an outstanding underwriting profit growth of 26%, outperforming that target by a big margin. In the U.K., the market turned challenging during the year. Hastings results were negatively affected by high claims inflation and very harsh weather in Q4. Nonetheless, Hastings was relatively resilient and achieved an operating ratio well ahead of the market average or many of its peers. Turning then to strategy, I am more convinced than ever that our strategic choice to focus on P&C insurance is the right one for us. P&C insurance plays to our strength. We have a leading market position in the very attractive, consolidated Nordic P&C market.
In addition, we operate in the U.K. digital market through Hastings, one of the best and leading operators of that field. P&C insurance is where we have the most differentiated capabilities, and we also see the most long-term profit creative possibilities in P&C insurance. In practice, I think that Sampo started refocusing towards P&C insurance already quite long ahead of 2020. But since then, we have taken further steps. Firstly, in August 2020, we announced a cash offer for a majority stake in Hastings, and then roughly a year later, bought the rest of the group. Secondly, we began decreasing our Nordea ownership in 2020 and continued with further transactions until we sold our remaining share in April last year. The total return for Nordea's Sampo ownership was EUR 7 billion.
Thirdly, our most recent step is the proposal from the board of a partial demerger of Sampo by means of splitting out, separating Mandatum, Sampo's life insurance and asset management business. Separating Mandatum would enable Sampo to be the leading pure play Nordic P&C insurer, creating lower market risks, stable earnings, potentially higher and more sustainable returns on capital. For Mandatum, this would bring greater freedom to pursue potential growth more ambitiously. As a P&C insurer, we have upheld a continuous focus on profitability. High retention, disciplined underwriting, and cost focus has led to a very strong development over the past 10-year period in the growth of the underwriting result, the underwriting profits. in 2022, the underwriting result reached an all-time high of EUR 1.3 billion. Our strong underwriting profit growth reflects our position as the largest P&C insurance group in the Nordics.
Through our operating entities, If, Topdanmark, Hastings, we serve over 7 million customers, 4 million out of which are in the Nordic region. Our footprint brings us significant geographical diversification and benefits of scale. As a pan-Nordic group, we are ideally positioned to capitalize on our leadership digitally and in the retail insurance market. We have the deepest and broadest cooperation with the automotive industry and see opportunities in being their preferred partner. Importantly, digital sales and service models offer sizable growth potential in both the private and SME segments going forward. The Nordic P&C market is very stable. We have continuously priced for inflation with no significant signs of decreased retention in the process. We also see a strong trend for digital insurers winning market share and winning profitability in the U.K. market.
As one of the leading digital providers with a very agile operating model, Hastings is well positioned for the future. Across our operations, our strategy is based on leveraging our superior technical and digital capabilities, and I've got a separate slide on that. Through very substantial IT investment over the past 10 to 15 years, we have created an advantage and a position of having best-in-class customer service and a very high level of efficiency. Putting this into perspective, If P&C alone invested more than EUR 90 million in IT investments in the broadest sense last year. Through our unrelenting focus, Sampo has the leading digital product offering. All products in the business area private are available online. A third of the new customers there come through that digital offering, and altogether, digital channels accounted for 50% or so of the direct incoming sales.
We have also, as you can see from the slide here, made it possible to report claims digitally, online, or using your phone. As you can see from this option is becoming increasingly popular. Let me point out that we are a true multi-channel company. Our call centers are seamlessly integrated with this digital offering. A couple of words on our investment portfolio. As you well know, interest rates rose very quickly last year. Sampo's decision previously to maintain a short duration has allowed us to reinvest very quickly into higher yielding instruments, and our fixed income running yield has doubled from 2021 year end. Higher interest rates also benefit our life operations, especially with-profit book in Mandatum. In regard then to our capital management, our strong performance combined with the divestment of the stake in Nordea has resulted in very significant excess capital over time.
As communicated in our dividend policy, we have an ambition to pay stable and sustainable regular dividends that grow in line with group earnings. When not utilized to support business, excess capital will be returned to shareholders through additional dividends and/or buybacks. In line with the dividend policy, our dividend proposal today is EUR 2.60 per share. Together with the announced buybacks, we are returning capital of some EUR 1.7 billion to you, our shareholders, this year. Finally, I would like to extend my enormous gratitude to Björn Wahlroos, Nalle, for his huge commitment and contribution to Sampo, first as Group CEO and later on as chair. The group has been changed by your mind, Nalle. Sampo Group began transforming to its current form shortly after Nalle had taken on the role as Group CEO.
If was acquired in the early noughties, Sampo Bank sold to Danske Bank, we heard already today, just before the financial crisis. This graph shows Sampo Group's total shareholder return from when Nalle joined in 2001. While you may not be involved in Sampo going forward, you have instilled razor-sharp focus on shareholder value creation, and that will continue and is ingrained in our culture. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we are very proud of and grateful for the decisive power that you have been in our corporate history. Thank you, Nalle, and thank you, audience.