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PZU Group Overview

Annual Report 2019 > PZU Group Overview
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Best Pratices in PZU

We would like to do something different from the classical client relation model insurers follow in which the only contact clients have with their insurer after buying a policy is when a claim occurs. We bring together all of the PZU Group’s activities and integrate them in a client-focused manner: life insurance, non-life insurance, health insurance, investments, pensions, health care, banking and assistance services. Our client relationships and our knowledge of our clients are becoming our main value, while our chief product is our acumen in addressing client needs to build a stable future.

The New PZU – More Than Insurance

The Powszechny Zakład Ubezpieczeń Group is the largest financial group in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe. PZU heads up the group with its traditions dating back to 1803 when the first insurance company was established on Polish soil. PZU is a public company. PZU’s stock has been listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) since 2010. Since its floatation PZU has been in the WIG20 index. It is one of the most highly valued companies and heavily traded stocks on the Polish stock exchange. Since 2019, PZU has been part of the WIG ESG (sustainability) index.

The State Treasury with a 34.19% equity stake is PZU’s largest shareholder.

The PZU Group has PLN 343 billion of consolidated assets and it enjoys the trust of 22 million clients in five countries by offering products and rendering services to retail clients, small and medium enterprises and business entities. The Polish market is the PZU Group’s core market measured by its magnitude and client numbers. Nevertheless, its subsidiaries play an important role on the markets in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine.

Its companies are active not only in life, non-life and health insurance but also in investment, pension, health care and banking products. Moreover, they render assistance services to retail clients and businesses through strategic partnerships. The magnitude and variety of operations paint the larger picture of what PZU is. It is a powerful financial institution, but above all it is a group of service companies whose operating foundation is the trust of its clients.

It is the Group’s strategic ambition to build long-lasting client relations, thereby leading to the integration of all operating areas with the client at the focal point. This makes it possible to deliver products and services that are well-matched to client needs at the appropriate time and place and respond to other client needs on a comprehensive basis. A crucial element in this process involves the usage of tools rooted in artificial intelligence, Big Data and mobile solutions that contributes to building an entrenched technological advantage in integrated client service. PZU’s philosophy of thinking is driving the transformation of the company’s operating model from an insurer model (pricing and transferring risk) to the model of a service company specializing in utilizing data (risk management consulting and services as well as caring for the future of clients, retail and business alike). The new model brings together all of the PZU Group’s activities and integrates them in a client-focused manner: life insurance, non-life insurance, health insurance, investments, pensions, health care, banking and assistance services.

Its robust brand underpins strategy execution. According tobrand awareness surveys, PZU is the most recognizable brand in Poland (spontaneous recognition of the PZU brand stands at 89% while assisted recognition is 100%).

Among all the Polish insurers PZU offers its clients the largest sales and service network. It has 410 branches with convenient access across the country, 10 thousand tied agents and agencies, 3.2 thousand multiagencies, nearly 1.1 thousand insurance brokers and electronic distribution channels. When it comes to bancassurance and strategic partnerships, the PZU Group collaborates with 13 banks and 21 strategic partners. PZU also has a claim handling system that operates efficiently.

The PZU Group’s clients in Poland have access to Bank Pekao’s distribution network (805 branches) and Alior Bank’s distribution network (197 traditional branches, 7 private banking branches, 8 corporate centers and 608 partner centers). Both banks have professional call centers and mobile and internet banking platforms.

In the Baltic States in which the PZU Group is in the insurance business, its distribution network consists of approximately 700 agents, 21 multiagencies and 408 brokers. PZU also cooperates with 4 banks and 14 strategic partners. In Ukraine insurance products are distributed through approximately 400 agents and in cooperation with 15 multiagencies, 37 brokers, 7 banks and 4 strategic partners.

Major business areas



We manage our business responsibly

PZU is an organization operating at a large scale. It is also cognizant of the expectations various stakeholder have of it, including clients, employees, investors, partners, industry experts, social environment and a number of institutions and organizations. That is why managing relations with stakeholders and their impact on the business community is accomplished in a deliberate and sustainable manner. PZU is a company that is open to social expectations. In the actions it takes it strives to set trends and construe business solutions responsibly. It also gets involved in actions to benefit the local communities in which the Group’s clients and employees function. For the PZU Group, sustainable management is a deliberate choice of how it conducts its business, thereby making it possible to build the company’s long-term value in an ethical and transparent manner while giving consideration to stakeholder needs and expectations. The full scope of information pertaining to the PZU Group’s implementation of corporate social responsibility principles that also incorporates all the legally-required non-financial information can be found in the 2019 Non-Financial Information Report of the PZU Group and PZU.

Responsible business management in the PZU Group



 

Values by which we are guided in our actions


 

Value creation model


High potential of the largest financial group in Central and Eastern Europe, over 200 years of trust, experience, efficiency and innovation.

 

PZU Group’s consolidated highlights for 2015-2019 (PLN million)

  2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
           
PZU GROUP NET OF ALIOR BANK AND PEKAO
Gross written premiums 18,359 20,219 22,847 23,470 24,191
Net result on investing activity including interest expenses 1,622 1,217 1,855 904 1,995
Net insurance claims and benefits paid -11,857 -12,732 -14,941 -14,563 -15,695
Acquisition expenses -2,376 -2,613 -2,901 -3,130 -3,363
Administrative expenses -1,658 -1,644 -1,647 -1,637 -1,739
Operating profit 2,940 2,287 3,198 3,298 3,606
Net profit attributable to equity holders of the parent company 2,343 1,754 2,502 2,559 2,780
BANKS: ALIOR AND PEKAO
Net profit attributable to equity holders of the parent company - 181 393 654 515
NET PROFIT ATTRIBUTABLE TO EQUITY HOLDERS OF THE PARENT COMPANY 2,343 1,935 2,895 3,213 3,295
Total assets 105,397 125,304 317,458 328,554 343,340
Equity attributable to the owners of the parent company 12,924 12,990 14,599 14,925 16,169

Restated data as at 31 December 2015-2018
Data from the consolidated statement of financial position for 2016, restated as at 1 January 2017

 

The financial results generated by the PZU Group in recent years place it among the most profitable financial institutions in the country. At the same time, they translate into high asset utilization ratios. In 2019 the return on equity was 21.2%, much higher than the average posted by insurance companies in Europe. Rapid growth is achieved while preserving a high level of business safety. This is corroborated both by its high solvency ratios and by the A- investment grade rating /positive/ awarded by the US rating agency S&P Global Ratings.

Financial strength rating and credit rating awarded to PZU by S&P

As at the end of Q3 2019, the solvency ratio - (calculated according to the standard Solvency II formula) was 220%, a level above the average solvency ratio reported by insurance groups in Europe.
On 14 June 2019, S&P Global Ratings, a US-based rating agency raised PZU’s rating outlook from stable to positive. PZU’s financial strength and credit rating remained at A-. This is one of the highest possible ratings for a Polish company to receive.

PZU’s attractiveness as an investment is highlighted by the promise of sharing profits with shareholders to the extent such profits are not needed to underwrite its rapid growth. The dividend per share paid from 2018 earnings (on 5 September 2019) was equal to PLN 2.80, representing 12.0% y/y growth.

At the end of December 2019, PZU’s market capitalization amounted to PLN 34.6 billion.


Selected awards and distinctions 2019



PZU Group’s growth history



 

Calendar

21 JANUARY

PZU and Bank Pekao as the organizers of the Polish House in Davos during the 2019 World Economic Forum

13 MARCH

#newPZU in Your Hands – recap of the first year of strategy execution

28 MARCH

appointment of the PZU Management Board for a new term of office

21 MAY

PZU as a strategic partner of impact’19

24 MAY

PZU’s Ordinary Shareholder Meeting

14 JUNE

S&P raises PZU’s rating outlook to positive

05 SEPTEMBER

dividend payment from PZU’s 2018 profit (PLN 2.80 per share)

16 SEPTEMBER

social campaign “Are you driving? Then put the phone down”

29 SEPTEMBER

PZU as the titular sponsor of the 41st PZU Warsaw Marathon

23 OCTOBER

appointment of Aleksandra Agatowska to the PZU Management Board

28 NOVEMBER

PZU as the partner of the 11th Annual CFA Institute Research Challenge

Upcoming investor events

ttps://www.pzu.pl/en/investor-relations/shares-and-bonds/investor-calendar