Ladies and gentlemen, I open today's 21st annual general meeting of the shareholders of UNIQA Insurance Group AG. I'd like to note that as of now, until the end of the report of the CEO on agenda item on, there will be a webcast of this event. After Mr. Brandstetter has ended his presentation, the webcast will be ended, and the remainder of our meeting, your requests for the 4-year statements, the voting procedure, and the resolutions will not be broadcast. A recording will be available on our website online. I'd like to welcome the shareholders who are present here today and their representatives. I also welcome our notary, Dr. Rupert Brix, and I ask him to notarize today's AGM and to monitor the voting process, which is handled electronically. We do not use Excel sheets as a side remark.
As regards the minutes to be recorded by the notary, I'd like to note that this is not a verbatim record of our meeting in accordance with the requirements of the Stock Corporation Act. The meeting reflects the proposed resolutions, the result of the voting, the resolutions adopted, and all statements and events, such as challenges that are raised and filed for the minutes or instructions given by the chairman. This means that all events that are relevant for the meeting and its effectiveness, and to ensure your rights will be notarized. I'd also like to point out that in order to facilitate the record taken by the notary, there will be an audio tape made of this event.
I further note that the convocation for today's AGM was published in due course and time with the agenda, and Amtsblatt zur Wiener Zeitung, the official journal of May 4, 2023, and was also made public on the website of our company. On May 4, 2023, the convocation was published through the wide electronic information system, EQS. The convocation was also transmitted in accordance with the implementing provision 2018/1212 of the EU Commission via SWIFT to Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG, was also made on May 4, 2023. The documents referred to in the convocation for this AGM, including the proposed resolutions, have been made public in accordance with Section 108, paragraph 3 and 4 of the Stock Corporation Act, in due course and time on the website of the company.
I will sign the list of participants immediately before our first vote and make it available for inspection. At the same time, I will inform you on the presence at today's AGM. The text of the convocation is available to you. I'd like to inform you that the company has not received any requests for amending the agenda, nor any proposed resolutions. Questions can be asked only on the agenda items and only in the way I'm going to explain right now. In order to ensure the orderly organization of this event, I'd like to ask you to fill in the forms that have been handed out and hand them in to the orderlies who will be passing through the rows and collecting your forms.
I'd like to point out that the speaking form has a carbon copy, so a copy of what you are asking will be remain with you. Could you kindly specify the agenda item on which you're going to speak, and also the substantive contents of your question, so that we can better prepare for our answers? During the request for the floor, I will call on shareholders who have asked for the floor to come up to the podium and present their statements and questions. There will be a general debate, meaning that first, we will have reports by the management board and the supervisory board on the agenda items, as well as the proposed resolutions on all agenda items, meaning agenda items one to eight. After that, we will then have the statements and requests for the floor by the shareholders on all agenda items.
After that, we will briefly interrupt our meeting for 15 minutes, during which we will show image films about UNIQA. After the break, we will provide answers to all questions on all agenda items, and we will then have the votes on the agenda items 2 to 8. Answering questions may be refused pursuant to Section 118, paragraph 3 of the Stock Corporation Act, if the answer by reasonable entrepreneurial judgment would cause harm or damage to the company, one of its affiliated companies, or whether this information and disclosure would be punishable under criminal law. I also instruct that we'll have the vote by raising your cards. Here is the process. Generally, we'll be using the subtraction method for voting. This means that the no votes and abstentions are counted and deducted from the total number of votes represented.
This results in the number of yes votes for that purpose. We will monitor presence through exit and entry controls permanently. During the vote, you must not enter or leave the room in order to ensure the orderly counting of the votes. In the light of this procedure, could I ask the shareholders and their representatives who wish to vote by no or wish to abstain from voting, to indicate that by raising their voting cards? Shareholders have received numbers voting cards, as well as their representatives on the registration tables before the access controls to our meeting room. The numbers on the voting cards will then be read aloud during the vote for better recording by a teller. Shareholders whose number has been read out already are kindly asked to lower their cards. The result will then be determined and ascertained as explained, using the subtraction method.
I will announce the results afterwards. If, for economical reasons, it is found to be useful to use any other mode of voting, I retain the right to amend the voting mode and to instruct that we proceed by a different way of voting. Could I kindly ask you to turn off your mobile phones, or at least put them on silent mode in order to ensure an undisturbed, AGM? I'd also like to point out to the information that has been made available on the website of the company since May 4, 2023, and also in the convocation, regarding safety measures and to the organizational requirements in the context of this AGM, and please comply with those provisions. After the end of the AGM, we will providing you with a buffet. Now, ladies and gentlemen, before we move on to agenda item one, could I ask Mrs.
Sabine Pfeffer, who will be succeeding Klaus Pekarek as of April, as a member of the board for Customer Market Bank Austria, to present herself briefly to the shareholders. You have the floor, Madam. Ladies and gentlemen, a very warm welcome from my side. I'm delighted that I can be here today and speak to you. Since the first of April, I'm responsible for Customer and Market Bank Austria, and I'm responsible for the Raiffeisen brand. Perhaps a few words on myself. I have 30 years of experience in the insurance business, 24 years of which in management-level positions. Most recently, I was responsible at Wiener Städtische for administration of health, life, personal insurance. During that time, I was also in contact with sales, banking sales, and there was a very close cooperation. Service excellence and digitalizations were the focal areas of my work.
Bancassurance is extremely relevant, and it is my purpose and objective to strengthen the strong cooperation we're having with Raiffeisen, and to expand that cooperation. We see that together with our partners, there is a huge potential in more than 1,900 banking outlets to be available to our customers, personally and digitally. Customer centricity, growing strongly, growing profitably, is what I'm committed to. Thank you very much for the trust you're placing in me, and I hope I'll be able to deliver on that promise. Thank you very much. I thought that would be a good idea to have this introduction at the very beginning. I recall last year's AGM, where there will be actually succeeding in attracting a woman for the management board, and I think we have found a professional, so we are very happy about that.
I now move on to agenda item one, the presentation of the approved and adopted non-consolidated financial statements as per 31 December 2022. The management report, the group management report, the consolidated corporate governance report of the management board, the separate consolidated non-financial report of the management board, the profit distribution proposal of the management board, together with the report of the supervisory board, in accordance with Section 96, Stock Corporation Act, all for the financial years 2022. I note that the financial statements adopted by the supervisory board at its meeting of 12 April 2023, was reviewed and adopted, and therefore is finally approved pursuant to Section 96, paragraph 4, Stock Corporation Act.
That the management report for the business year 2022, the consolidated corporate governance report of the management board, and the proposed distribution of profits, as well as the group financial statements as per 31 December 2022, that has been reviewed by the supervisory board. The group management report for the business year 2022, the separate consolidated non-financial report 2022, and the report of the supervisory board pursuant to Section 96, Stock Corporation Act for the business year 2022 are available. The group report, the group financial statements of UNIQA Insurance Group AG, and the group management report, the consolidated corporate governance report, and the proposed allocation of profits are available in German and in English, and have been made available on the website of the company, www.uniqagroup.com.
These documents are included in the annual financial report 2022, pursuant to Section 124, paragraph 1 of the Stock Exchange Act. Moreover, the separate consolidated non-financial report 2022 has been published in the group report and the group financial report, and also published separately, in addition to the sustainability report on the website mentioned. The convocation and the agenda have been made available in German and English, as well as the report of the supervisory board, pursuant to Section 96, Stock Corporation Act, as well as the remuneration report for remuneration of the management board and the supervisory board for the business year 2022, which is the subject matter of a separate agenda item at today's AGM. The proposed resolutions have been made available on the website of the company. These documents have also been transmitted to shareholders at their request.
I now give the floor to Mr. Brandstetter on this agenda item for his report.
Thank you very much, Chairman Rothensteiner. Ladies and gentlemen, last year, it seemed that we couldn't always make lives better. It didn't look as if the 2022 financial year would be the best ever, because the consequences of the Russian war of aggression in February led to a distortion in our business. I've subdivided my presentation into three parts. First, the most important events of 2022, then an overview of our strategy program, UNIQA 3.0, and finally, how is the first quarter of 2023 going? Is the trend of 2021 and 2022 continuing, or are there any major changes? Here is an overview of the most important figures. The two figures at the top show that we now have more than 16 million customers, not including customers of the pension funds.
For the first time, we have reached EUR 6.6 billion in gross written premium. The cost ratio has gone down slightly. We have costs well under control. What's happening in the row below shows you that investment income decreased by more than EUR 30 million, because rising interest rates led to market value losses, which also had an impact on P&L. We had high impairments on Russian and Ukrainian bonds in the amount of more than EUR 140 million. Total impairments amounted to more than EUR 300 million. On the other hand, you can see the combined ratio, which is now 92.9%, which is an absolute low, a record value, which shows that the underwriting development of UNIQA in 2021 continued in 2022.
Earnings before tax increased by approximately 10%, reaching a record value of EUR 422. Let us take a look at a growth performance. Property and casualty insurance, which is the heavyweight, so to speak, in our portfolio, more than 50% of our earnings are derived from this segment. Growth amounts to +5.6%. You may argue that indexation is possible in certain markets UNIQA is operating in, consumer price index, construction cost index, but even if you exclude indexation, growth would amount to 4%, which shows that our in-force business is performing well. We retain our customers, retail customers, SME customers, large customers, and productivity in new business, both nationally and international, is satisfactory. The value in the middle is highly satisfactory.
More than EUR 1.2 million are derived from health insurance growth, +4.1%. This is primarily due to health insurance in Austria, where we are number one with a market share of 44%. In life insurance, developments were compensated by satisfactory new business. Growth is ±0.0%. That resulted in growth, gross written premium of EUR 6.6 billion. That is +3.9% compared to 2021. I mentioned the profitability in our core business, which improved enormously. Claims payments, -0.2%, operating expenses, +3.8%, and underwriting technology, EUR 411 million, +96.2%, and earnings before tax, EUR 422 million.
EUR 380 million net result, which is remarkable because the tax ratio is extremely low. Equity declined, I told you why, and investment income, -37.4%, below that of 2021. Our dividend proposal is to pay out EUR 0.55 per share, which is the same as in 2021. You might argue that why not increase the dividend in a record year? I would ask you to bear in mind what the net result is, EUR 383 million, which is extremely high, but the tax ratio is atypically low. The normal tax ratio would be 21%. That would mean EUR 335 million net result.
If you bear in mind that the payout ratio under UNIQA 3.0 would be 50%, which would have meant that we would have paid out EUR 170 million. If you multiply the number of shares by EUR 0.55, that will add up to approximately EUR 107 million. I hope I've been able to explain why the dividend proposal is the same as the year before. There are two special topics which are of great importance and demand our attention. That is Ukraine and Russia. We have a clear commitment to Ukraine. We are the number two in the Ukrainian insurance market. It's a market with an enormous potential, under-insured, EUR 86 million premium volume, 38 employees, and 1.4 million customers. We stay in the country, we keep supporting the country in a difficult period.
We greatly appreciate what colleagues on site are doing. It's beyond any human effort. We continuously try to be up and running in our operations for the benefit of our customers. The situation in Russia is different. Our strategy is different. We've been operating there for 13 or 14 years. We've been profitable, but Russia is no core market. Russia has always played a minor role for us. Less than 1% of group revenues are generated in Russia. The very day after the war of aggression of Russia against Ukraine, new business was stopped. We're examining all options, including a disposal, a sale of the company. A decision is to be expected in the coming 6 months. A second topic which keeps us very busy, which is something that, unfortunately, due to geopolitical tension, has not received the attention it deserves.
That is our position with regard to ESG. Insurance business is the biggest investor in the European Union. EUR 11 trillion assets under management are being invested. For the transformation of the European Union, it's essential what the insurance industry is doing in terms of capital investment. We have to look at two things. On the one hand, on the right-hand side, I hope you can all read this, there is our clear commitment on the insurance side. Four years ago, we phased out the insurance of old energy. We exited from coal, and by 2030, we want to exit from oil, and by 2035, we want to phase out our business in gas. I'm not mentioning what we're doing in our own operation because that is a matter of course. On the left-hand side, you can see a number of memberships.
We have entered the Green Finance Alliance and the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance. The leading insurers of the world have got together to develop a clear path towards green assets. I'm mentioning these memberships because they're not paper tigers. Every year, clear targets are being set, which you have to observe if you are a member, and attainment of the targets is being verified. Once we become members, we assume a clear commitment as regards the clean, the sorry, the green transformation and UNIQA's contribution. As of this year, ESG is a relevant component of performance-dependent remuneration for top management in UNIQA. It has a direct influence on top management remuneration. Overall, approximately EUR 2 billion have been invested in sustainable assets.
I'm pointing this out because the issue of greenwashing comes up again and again, and we don't want to be blamed by customers or shareholders for not participating in greenwashing. This is not what we want. Those were the important highlights of the excellent year, 2022. How are we doing with our long-term strategy program, UNIQA 3.0? You remember this from last year. We are reporting on four chapters. We have to make the insurance business more customer-oriented and more profitable for you and for all of us. Where do we stand? This is a map of Austria, which shows that in six out of nine provinces, we are number one. We are number two in Lower and Upper Austria. We are number three in Vienna.
In Austria, we have 4 million customers, retail customers, SMEs, and bigger businesses, and more than EUR 4 billion earnings. In the field of digitalization, artificial intelligence, and IT, a lot is happening, but our approach is a hybrid one. It's up to the customer to decide how to interact with UNIQA and how to buy our products. We don't force people to operate digitally. We're not imposing anything on anybody. Our customers decide for themselves. Customer satisfaction in 2022 was high. We want to reach the top value of 5. The average value now is 4.5 in customer satisfaction, which again, shows that there has been an excellent development in 2022. As regards to the EUR 4 billion in premium earned, this includes bancassurance in Austria. We have an excellent position in bancassurance.
We owe this to Sabine's predecessor, Klaus Pekarek, and I'd like to thank you once again, because since 2009, you have been responsible for this field of activity. You have been doing this with a great deal of enthusiasm and passion. You have been our model on the management board, and I would like to thank you on behalf of the entire management board, most sincerely for all your efforts. You may rest assured, ladies and gentlemen, that the same passion and the same enthusiasm will be contributed by Sabine Pfeffer, and we can continue on the course which we have been moving on for years. Let's take a look at the international scene. We are represented in almost all countries between Czech and Russia. We are still in Russia.
We generated EUR 174 million in earnings before tax in Central and Eastern Europe, which shows that UNIQA, it has a very solid second leg as regards its operational business. We have more than 12 million customers in Central and Eastern Europe. Premium return is slightly lower than in Austria, EUR 2.5 billion. It's due to the fact that disposable income in Central and Eastern Europe is still significantly lower than in Austria, and people have less money to invest in insurance, but that is going to change in the coming years and decades. You can also see customer satisfaction, 4.5 stars on a scale of 5 stars, and inflation was even higher than in Austria.
When you think of Poland, for example, our biggest market in Central and Eastern Europe, with more than 15-5 million customers, the inflation rate was between 15% and 16%. Nevertheless, we performed extremely well. How are we doing in respect of our innovative and digital services? Those are things which you may not find particularly noteworthy, but it reflects our progress. Through new digital interfaces, which we have been implementing in our IT systems consistently in recent years, we want additional partners in the so-called affinity sphere, so that, in the past, we would have said we cooperate with a new partner, the Austrian Motorist Club, for example.
The programming of new interfaces would have take months, if not years, but through the digital interfaces we have implemented, this takes far less time. Which means that corporate customers, you can see some of their logos there, can be incorporated and integrated very quickly, and we offer insurance products to their customers. The next point is ecosystems. We are investing not only in the field of health, but also in other areas. We have developed the so-called RUDI platform, which stands for around your property, and we are expanding the digital self-services. If you ask me where I think that digitalization will succeed most, it's on the back-end side. This is where our customers, and we are talking about more than 16 million customers, who can use their smartphone to deal with matters which in the past were rather complicated.
Of 1.3 million customers in health insurance in Austria, 60% are submitting all invoices of physicians and pharmacies online by clicking on their cell phone. That means customers get the money within a couple of days, and in the coming years, we expect to see further improvements in customer convenience and simplification for our customers. Last but not least, you will remember what we said about CHERRISK in recent years. It's a so-called corporate startup. It was sort of developed as an aside by UNIQA managers. It's working very well. Our Hungarian management has taken on the issue. We've gone to Germany, and we have seen enormous growth in certain product groups, particularly in travel insurance. Why is CHERRISK so interesting? Check it on the Internet. It's an old idea of the insurance industry. We are not profiting ourselves from earnings.
We give them back to customers. Customers themselves decide whether they wish to invest the money in charity projects and similar things in their region. Third point, how are we dealing in the field of health, in the health sector? This shows what mavie can do for us. mavie is our youngest child. We set up mavie 3 years ago. It used to be called SanusX. mavie bundles all activities of the UNIQA Group in the field of health that have nothing to do with health insurance. Everything that is beyond insurance, beyond health insurance, that all happens under mavie. Take a look at the right-hand side of this diagram. Living a healthy life is the slogan. We all want to live a healthy life as long as possible. Now, we have developed something in diagnostics that is called Lively.
Blood tests that can be done at home. This is an investment which we have recently corrected. Our flagship is mavie itself. A couple of years ago, we bought the leading mental health care provider. It's called mavie or mavie Care. Large Austrian companies, 150 of them, are customers of mavie, who themselves have 120,000 employees. The world of work is changing, and these companies are saying the mental health of their employees matters to them. These companies are customers of mavie. We offer coaching, we offer psychological services, et cetera. This is a fast-growing market, a market for the future. Take a look at the column in the middle. Our investment in cura domo. cura domo is the leading provider of care workers, 24-hour care workers. There are 2,200 care workers.
We hold a market share of 39%. We hold a share, a participation of 39%, and we have a call option for the coming years to top up our participation. We think that the demographic situation in Austria, together with the situation of the healthcare system, needs private sector participation. Pharmacies are being mentioned here because hardly anybody in Austria has such a good image and is regarded as so trustworthy as pharmacists. We are offering digital services, which we offer pharmacies to facilitate their communication with their core customers, their in-force customers, people who are chronically ill, for example. On the left-hand side, 2 participations. Lara. Lara is a healthcare network of physicians and healthcare institutions. We have 380 partners in the network already under contract, and this network is available to 1.3 million customers in Austrian Health Insurance.
That is making appointments, getting treatment fast. This is what we can offer to our customers because we think this is a service which will be in even higher demand in the future. We have been managing five private hospitals for many years. Three in Vienna, one in Graz, one in Salzburg, we are investing in this field. EUR 60 million are being invested in a hospital in the 19th district of Vienna. This is going to be a new building, five stories, new operating theaters with daylight, a spacious maternity ward, well-equipped single rooms. Ground has already been broken, this is intended to show how seriously we take the issue of healthcare and health insurance. The 4th and last area concerns something you have heard about at each and every AGM this year, our employees as the most important resource of UNIQA.
We are not joining those who complain about how difficult it is to recruit good employees. Of course, as a young person, when you wake up in the morning, you probably won't think about the insurance industry as your preferred employer. We do have the strongest insurance brand in Austria. 75% brand awareness. We know how strong our corporate culture is, and by 2025, we want to be the best employer in our industry and beyond. In recent weeks, you may have noticed our advertisements all over Austria because we are advertising UNIQA as an attractive employer. We have approximately 13,300 employees. Last year, we had 2,000 new employees who joined us.
This tells you that employee turnover is high because of retirement. Of the 2,000 new colleagues, 600 were recruited in Austria. UNIQA 3.0 was first presented in 2020. If you were onboarding last year, you don't really know UNIQA 3.0 well enough. It's our task to explain the strategy well enough, telling people that we're different from other others, and why it's so important and such a good thing for new employees to work for UNIQA. One thing we used to underestimate in the past, that is diversity. I wasn't consistent enough. I simply thought it's like in your private lives. You have friends. Diversity is a part of everyday life. We failed to set up the right programs. Now, we are working on sustainable programs for HR.
Equal pay for equal work matters enormously for us. We have mentoring programs, job sharing program, up to the management level. Last but not least, a few words about the first three months of 2023. Did the trend of the past 24 months continue or not? What's really going to be interesting is that next year we are going to report according to the new accounting standards, IFRS 17 and IFRS 9. The expectation is to have increased transparency. We are not joining others who are complaining about how difficult and complicated this is. We think that IFRS 17 and 9 will enable you, as shareholders, to compare companies, to benchmark companies against one another. It's not possible yet to compare KPIs, but in the course of time, there will be higher transparency.
IFRS will lead to a situation in which we will see more volatility in the results, because the fair value approach will be weighted more highly. We will carry more through profit and loss, this will result in a certain degree of volatility. Revenues will be lower. What you have known so far as a premium written, premium earned, will no longer exist. It's all revenue. Revenue development, at first sight, will no longer be at EUR 6.6 billion next year, but significantly lower. The major changes occur in personal insurance because IFRS 17 forces us to pay greater attention to the expected, but not yet earned profits from current contracts. The new magic term is CSM.
It stands for the contractual service margin. There will be few changes in property and casualty insurance, and no changes in the field of the group's strategy in capitalization, solvency, and dividend policy. That will remain unchanged, in our opinion. What did the first quarter of 2023 look like? It's a mix of IFRS 4, that is old, and IFRS 9 and 17. Written premiums grew by 6.5%. This is still the old IFRS 4 world. Remember the 3.9% I mentioned earlier? Growth in in-force business and in new business, supported by indexations, was excellent. This is a very sound business. The gross combined ratio, 88.7%, don't compare that with the 92.7%, which I mentioned a couple of minutes ago.
That was a net figure after reinsurance. This is a gross figure before reinsurance. Not all the costs we had in the old IFRS world are included there, because this includes the costs that cannot be attributed to any particular sector. Investment income, EUR 125 million, a very good development. The solvency ratio stands unchanged at 253%. This is 7%+ , compared to the end of 2022. UNIQA is a very solidly capitalized company. Therefore also a 10% increase in earnings before tax to EUR 124 million. This is a highly satisfactory development. What is our outlook? There are two dimensions to this outlook. The first one is what we have under control, which makes us optimistic. That is, in-force business, new business.
On the claims side, we take a very positive approach, but 2 disclaimers: June, July, and August is the high season, so to speak, for natural catastrophes. My positive attitude remains regardless of the danger of natural catastrophes. Of course, the second question: How are capital markets going to develop in the remaining 7 months of the year? Overall, a very positive picture. What are the top risks and top opportunities? On the left-hand side, 3 topics that are important for us. We have a high demand for qualified employees. We are optimistic to do better than our peers and to do better than other service providers. When you look at data, IT, AI, almost all companies that have a demand in these fields want to recruit the same talents as we do.
You don't need to be an expert in insurance for that. Austria and Europe find themselves in a situation of losing global competitiveness. This is an area of concern for us, although it's a topic for the next or next, but one generation of managers. This is education. Why are we suffering from a lack of investment in education? The financial literacy of people is low. They don't know enough about funds, about insurance products, about bank products. Not everyone is an expert like you are. Not everyone is interested in the financial sector. The Republic of Austria will have to do more in terms of education in this respect. Another point that is of concern for us is the future of the pension system. Too little support for the second and third pillars.
We are always in contact with the government, no matter which government is in power. Millions of Austrians are under-insured. There is a growing risk of old age poverty, particularly of women. Women have lower pensions, lower by 1/3 than men on average. Those are urgent issues which we have to devote our attention to, but there is little will of reform all over Europe. A third area concerns health risks in general. It's no coincidence that health beyond insurance is an area in which we invest a great deal. Not against the state. We want to be a partner for the public sector. We don't want to engage in a discussion about what some call a two-class health insurance system. A third and last point on the left-hand side is something we are all fully aware of.
I have three children. We have to fight against climate change. This is our priority task. It's being overshadowed by other topics, if we don't manage the turnaround, you know the strength of the insurance company in Europe. If we don't manage the turnaround, things will be difficult for people and generations that come after us. There are also opportunities that make us optimistic. We are aware of the strengths of our brand. 75% supported brand awareness. This doesn't mean that we don't need to do anything. It's an asset for us to build on. The second point is smart digitalization. We're not talking about digitalization at any price, simply because it's modern, because there is a hype. We are talking about digitalization that generates a tangible benefit for our customers, retail customers, SMEs, and corporate customers.
Let me give you one example to illustrate what I mean. We're investing EUR 100 million every year in IT, digitalization, and AI. This is a lot of money for UNIQA. We are seeing the first benefits. In April, we started launching a product in Austria in the field of household insurance, simple household insurance for everybody. When you, as a customer, decide to buy this product with a digital signature, you will get the policy in your electronic mailbox within a couple of days without any employee at UNIQA working on this policy. This is what we call black box processing, which is more than 99%. We've already sold the product 8,000 times.
I'm pointing this out to illustrate the positive impact such investments have, because the colleagues who used to work on such policies in the past can now use their capacities, their time, and their talents elsewhere, and that is essential for us. We are convinced that we are on the right track, and we will report more about that in the coming years. Finally, increasing life expectancy and a higher health awareness.
We're all happy about that. We have a longer life than generations before us, and we are living longer in good health. When we're talking about health beyond insurance, this is what we are investing in. Ladies and gentlemen, permit me a personal remark, a personal message I'd like to convey to you on the behalf of the managing board. Mr. Rothensteiner used to be the chairman, has been the chairman of the Supervisory Board, and he's been with UNIQA since the 1990s.
I would like to thank you for everything you have done for us. You are always calm, factual, down to earth, and never nervous. You helped us make UNIQA what it is today. There is a famous saying: If you want to go fast, you go alone. If you want to go far, you go together. Walter, you stand for the latter. Robert Menasse wrote a book, entitled, Everyone can say me, but me is not what matters for you. You are an expert in the capital market, in human resources, you always made sure that the situation is well balanced.
The fact that UNIQA is what it is today, is thanks to you to a large extent. On behalf of the management board, a great debt of gratitude, which I owe to you. We will always be grateful for what you have done for us.