Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the VIG Results for the First Half Year 2026 conference call and live webcast. I am Moritz, the conference call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in a listen only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it is my pleasure to hand over to Peter Höfinger, Deputy CEO. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you very much. Also from my side, a very warm welcome. Together with me is Liane Hirner, CFO, and Nina Higatzberger-Schwarz from Investor Relations. We are happy to guide you through our half year results, which I think are pretty positive and a solid set of figures. We have achieved more than EUR 9 billion cross-written premiums, which is a growth of 5.4%, achieving a profit of EUR 640 million, which is up around 20% to the comparable period. Having a net combined ratio of 91.4%, which is an improvement of 0.5%, even though we had a little bit higher nat cat claims activity. Our solvency ratio stays at 272, including already Nürnberger, but at a simplified method and having an operating return on equity of 17.8%. On the next slide, you see our economic environment, which is continuously outperforming the Eurozone.
We have in the European country, Central Eastern Europe, a GDP growth of 2.2% and in Western Balkans of 2.5%. Looking forward, the next two years, also here, the forecast is even growing in the GDP grosses. On the next slide, we want to illustrate you our robustness of our business model, just showing how we have developed approximately the last 20 years, with different developments at the time, starting with the impact of the global financial crisis 2008, 2009. Also, during this period of time, we were able to have a stable profit and paying dividends. We had then, 2013, a significant flood event in Central Eastern Europe, but also here, due to our conservative reinsurance strategy, we had a stable profit and we are paying dividends. During the periods of low and negative interest rates, 2015 and 2022, we further developed our profitability.
The same in the hike of inflation and interest rates after COVID. Also here, our business model proved to be robust and in the end, what we had 2024, which was our largest nat cat event with around EUR 630 million gross claims. Also here, we were able to keep our promises and pay our dividends as projected. I think this is showing despite growing and reaching size and becoming more profitable, also with these external events, we proved to be pretty resilient. On the next slide, we are further working on increasing this resilience. You see the composition of our profit. Diversification of profit streams is more and more diversified.
Just here, showing you the example and just taking the example from 2020 to 2025, where Poland, Extended CEE and special markets, were 18% of total profits in 2020, and they are accounting already for 40% in the year 2025. Midterm, this will also further diversify with Nürnberger joining us. On the next slide, showing an overview of where VIG stands in the context of the European primary insurance groups. We are now on the 13th position, excluding Nürnberger. But you see on the first column, we are top three growing company. All this with our focus in the region of CEE, where we are market leader, and having in mind that our region still is characterized by low insurance penetration, but also, as mentioned before, combined with a higher economic growth. This will also enable us in the future to have an attractive growth rate.
To give you also on the next slide, a short update on the Nürnberger acquisition. We had the closing on May 18, achieving 99.2% of the shares, nominating my colleague, Mr. Löger and Mr. Lahner in the supervisory board, and we also initiated a squeeze-out process. I think it's also remarkable that between signing and closing, we have been pretty fast with just seven months, which allowed us to immediately start the integration process with Nürnberger. There is a special focus on the developing and implementing an IT transformation strategy. As promised already in our earning calls of the first quarter, we will update our financial targets of evolve28 once the integration of Nürnberger and IFRS 17 is completed at the year end. With this, I'm handing over to the section of financials to Liane. Please, Liane.
Thanks, Peter. Let me start on slide 10 with the growth rates and premiums, and a short reminder why premiums are up by 5.4% compared to the stronger insurance service revenue growth, which amounts 7.1%. As we already explained in the first quarter, it is a topic of the special market segment and the restrictive approach in 2026 in the motor business in Czechia. As shown on the slide, the special markets are the only segment with a slight premium decrease of 1.6%, whereas the growth rate for the insurance service revenue is still supported by the new production in the second half year 2025 in Czechia. At the same time, the countries in our CE core market continue to deliver strong growth rates. For example, Poland with 8.3% premiums growth or Czechia with 8.1%.
Of the markets in our Extended CEE segment, Hungary and Bulgaria stand out with double-digit growth rates of 15% and 12% respectively. Serbia with 9.7%, Croatia with 9.3%, and Slovakia with 7% showed strong premium development as well. All of these markets outperformed the overall Extended CEE segment premium growth rate of 6.4%. Last but not least, also Austria, being part of our CE core market, achieved 3.6% premium growth, contributing more than 20% to the overall premium increase of +EUR 462.1 million. On page 11, the group income statement is shown. I will go into details on the following slides.
I would only like here to mention the complete goodwill impairment of EUR 72.8 million for Hungary that impacted the development of the comparison period and highlights the net profit after taxes and non-controlling interest of EUR 473.4 million, up by 15.8%, leading to annualized earnings per share of EUR 7.28. On the next two slides, the details of the insurance service revenue growth of 7.1% to EUR 6.8 billion are shown. Here you can see all segments as well as all lines of business are growing and contributing to the additional EUR 453 million in insurance service revenue. In addition, the growth rates shown on this slide ranging from 3.6% for Austria to 10.9% for the special markets. Three segments with the highest absolute contribution were Extended CEE with +EUR 173 million, followed by Czechia with +EUR 95 million and Austria with +EUR 65 million.
Here, I again, would like to mention those markets in our Extended CEE segment that recorded double-digit growth rates. These are Ukraine +18.5%, Bosnia +16.2%, Hungary and Albania, both +more than 13%, Croatia with close to 13%, and Bulgaria with +11.3%. You can find also the full overview of each market development on slide 30 in the appendix. Over the page, the previously mentioned solid revenue growth in all lines of business is shown. Non-life altogether grew by 6.3%, health grew by 8.8%, and the life business overall increased by 9.3%. Trends that underpin that our diversified growth profile and leading to a portfolio split of roughly 78% non-life, 14% life, and 8% health business, all of this not yet including Nürnberger Group.
The results before taxes growth of 20.7% shown on slide 14 is strongly supported by solid performances of the segment Extended CEE +98%, Austria +11%, and special markets +35%. Extended CEE, adjusted for last year's entire goodwill impairment in Hungary, recorded double-digit growth of close to 14%. In Poland, the strong operational performance formed the basis for technical reserve strengthening, leading to this 12.8% decrease in result before taxes in the first six months. Slight decline in Czechia is primarily driven by an increased combined ratio. Markets in the Extended CEE segment that I would like to highlight in terms of profit growth are Romania, +33%, and Bulgaria, +15%. In the special market segment, the growth is driven by the performance of Czechia, with profits up by EUR 19 million based on a strong capital investment result.
On slide 15, the combined ratio details and the split between claims and cost ratios are shown. The net combined ratio of the group improved to 91.4%, including discounting impact of 3.6%. The increase in Poland is impacted by the already mentioned strengthening of the technical reserve. In Czechia, the combined ratio increase is due to the rise of the motor claim frequency, which triggered lower reinsurance commissions. Net weather-related claims of roughly EUR 81 million in the first half year 2026 are only slightly above the level of EUR 73 million in the comparison period last year. Now let's move to slide 16 and the contractual service margin in the life and health business. The life and health CSM increased by 1.3% in the period. This is primarily driven by interest rate changes and also a new business contribution. Triggered dimensions growth in health and life.
Also, the CSM release of EUR 299 million could not be fully offset by the new business of EUR 252 million. The sustainability ratio improved to 84% compared to 80% in the first six months of 2025. The new business of EUR 252 million came with an ongoing strong new business margin of 9% for the half year 2026, which is a comparable value to the first six months of 2025. Over the page, we present the details of the total capital investment result of EUR 373.5 million, up by 26.4%, driven by higher interest rates in the bond market. The significant increase in the remaining result from financial instruments stems mainly from higher unrealized gains and lower unrealized losses, as well as higher currency gains. In addition, we have also achieved growth in current income due to an increase of the average return on our fixed income investment portfolio.
I would now move on to slide 18. Here, you can see the investment overview as of end of June 2026. Investments held at VIG's own risk further increased to EUR 39.1 billion, up by EUR 1.1 billion compared to year end. The most significant change in asset class split is in affiliated companies. Related to the acquisition of Nürnberger and the still pending initial consolidation, the share in affiliated companies increased from 1.4% at year end to 5% at the end of June. We show Nürnberger as a share in not consolidated companies. This will disappear, of course, at the full consolidation at year end again. Share in bonds is now at 72.2%. Other than that, there were only minor shifts, both by rating and by issuer. This brings us to slide 19 and the solvency ratio.
The solvency calculation includes for the first time, but based on a simplified method, Nürnberger. What does this mean? First of all, there is no consolidation as of June 30, 2026 yet, and we use the data from Nürnberger for the consolidation from the first quarter 2026. Thus, the solvency ratios, both including and excluding transitionals as of end of June, might still move in both directions in the first set of consolidated Solvency II figures will be provided for year end 2026. As of June 2026, based on the simplified inclusion approach and data from Nürnberger as of the first quarter, VIG's solvency ratio came in at 272%. This is 24 percentage points lower due to the inclusion of Nürnberger compared to the solvency ratio of 296% at year end 2025.
The SCR increased by EUR 873 million with +22% stronger than their own funds, +12% compared to year end. The largest SCR driver was the increased market risk, particularly the equity risk. Solvency ratio, excluding transitional measures of 258%, decreased by 18 percentage points compared to year end for the same reasons. However, our capitalization is and stays strong. Even with more impact from Nürnberger, which might be the case after full consolidation as of July 1, 2026, VIG will remain with its solvency ratio well above the 200% threshold. That brings me to the end of my presentation, and we come to the outlook. Based on our sound performance in the first half year 2026 including the premium and profit growth, the improved combined ratio and the ongoing strong profitability in Life, we are confirming the given guidance.
Still, without Nürnberger, we target profit before taxes within a range of EUR 1.25 billion- EUR 1.3 billion for 2026. We hope the market continues to value our healthy growth trajectory as currently reflected in the favorable share price development. With this, I have come to the end, and I will hand back to the operator. We are now ready and happy to answer your questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Questioners on the phone are requested to disable the loudspeaker mode and eventually turn off the volume from the webcast while asking a question. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. The first question comes from Qian Lu from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. This is Qian Lu from UBS. Two questions from me, please. The first one is on Poland. Growth was very strong, but at the same time, you strengthened reserves and the combined ratio moved up year-on-year. Can you help me understand what is behind that reserve strengthening? Is it mainly a prudence build or are you seeing any adverse claims trend in the book? If it is the latter, do you feel your recent pricing has adequately reflected those trends? The second one is on the solvency ratio, including Nürnberger. Should we think of that number as broadly excluding any diversification benefits? If so, how should we think about the potential capital synergies from the transaction over time? Thank you.
Thank you for your questions. I take the first one, Poland. Yes, it is a prudence measure. We are back on a growth dynamic, and we are using the favorable results to further make our balance sheet in Poland more robust. This is the reason for it.
I am happy to take the second question regarding the solvency ratio. As I explained, we had included them with a simplified method and with Q1 data. What we did is we added the SCR sub-modules and took the own funds of Nürnberger. So there is some diversification effect, of course, included on sub SCR module level. But there could be a different effect when we really do the full consolidation at year-end. So there might be some volatilities also when we have the full consolidation and full inclusion as of year-end. I hope this answers your question.
Got it. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Thomas Neuhold from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Thank you for the presentation. Thank you. My questions. I have two questions regarding the development of the P&L in the first half of 2026 on page 11. I was just wondering if you can explain in what detail why the lines insurance service revenue, reinsurance, health, and other income and expenses deteriorated so strongly year-on-year in the first half of 2026.
I am happy to take your question. If I understood correctly, it was the insurance service revenue, reinsurance, health. This has to do with large loss occurred in the second half of 2025. This was a positive impact in last year. When we come to other income and expenses, there is a one-off included, which does not have an impact on the net, or mainly a one-off that does not have an impact on the net result. It is due to consolidation of reinsurance balances.
Okay, I see. Thanks a lot.
Welcome.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one. We do have another question coming from Thomas Unger from Erste Group. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions as well. I would like to come back to the solvency ratio and the impact from the inclusion of Nürnberger. I am not sure if I missed it, but can you mention the impact that you have from that inclusion on the solvency ratio? Secondly, on the solvency ratio own funds development, page 33 in your presentation. There is a strong move in the taxes other category. If you could explain that as well, I would appreciate that. I would like to talk about Hungary. This showed the strongest improvement on profit before tax year-over-year, obviously, because of the impairment last year, and also very strong top-line growth in the first quarter. What do you see on the market? Do you see any feeling, effect of the political change in the first half?
What were the effect of the sector specific taxes in H1? What are your expectations for insurance sector taxes under the new government going forward? Thank you.
Thank you for your questions. Your first question regarding the solvency ratio. It stands at 272 percentage points, including Nürnberger. If we would not include the effect of Nürnberger, the solvency ratio of half year would be 296%, so 24 percentage points higher, and this is also the same solvency ratio as of year-end 2025. Without Nürnberger, the solvency ratio remains stable, and the 24% is the effect of Nürnberger. Your second question on page 33, regarding the development of their own funds, the column taxes and others. Here is a strong movement of +964%. Here included are the additional funds from Nürnberger, which are approximately EUR 1 billion and a negative tax effect of EUR 100,000. This is mainly Nürnberger own funds effect.
I come to your last question, which is concerning Hungary. I start here with the topic of taxes. In the taxes, nothing has changed until now, so there is no effects of changing of taxes. It is too early to give any concrete evaluation for the future. We do hope that there will be short to mid-term positive changes for the insurance sector, but I think it's too early to have here a clear message in this direction. Our growth is, on one hand side, also supported by FX effects, one has to say. On the other hand side, there is a positive mood and atmosphere in the economic environment, where we are benefiting and therefore we're also here generating this growth in Hungary.
Thank you. Can you give me the specific impact of the sector taxes that you have, the additional sector taxes that you had in the first half?
You mean on page 33? It is EUR 120,000. Sorry. This was a different.
For Hungary.
For Hungary.
For Hungary. Exactly.
It's EUR 24 million.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, you may press star and one at this time. It looks like there are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the conference back over to Nina, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for participating in today's call. Our next results call covering VIG's results for the first three quarters of 2026 is scheduled for November 26. If you have any further questions in between, Investor Relations is there for you. Otherwise, we wish you a good afternoon, and thank you once again. Bye.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing this call, and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye.