Investor Relations activities expanded
Responding not least to the considerable need to discuss the natural catastrophe events, we further stepped up our Investor Relations efforts in 2011. Altogether, we took part in 14 capital market conferences (previous year: 9) and met with interested investors at 21 roadshows (previous year: 22). Our travel activities in 2011 were again focused on the financial centres of Frankfurt, London and New York, which we visited at least once a quarter. Along with Paris, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Geneva and Zurich, our itinerary also included Toronto and Boston. Newly added financial marketplaces – or venues that we had not visited in a long time – included Vienna, Luxembourg, Amsterdam, Edinburgh and Dublin. Institutional investors and analysts had another opportunity to engage in dialogue with the Executive Board at our analysts’ conferences, which we again held on the same day in Frankfurt and London. Our 14th Investors’ Day, held as scheduled in Hannover in 2011, was very well received. In total, 36 analysts and institutional investors enjoyed an intensive exchange of views with the Executive Board. The discussions focused on the new corporate strategy as well as growth and development prospects going forward in non-life and life/health reinsurance.
In the year under review we also optimised the rendering of online offerings provided on our Investor Relations website for mobile end devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs. Our Investor Relations website was again selected as the best in the MDAX and the industry by the company NetFederation. We received thoroughly positive feedback from IR Global Rankings, which crowned our HTML Annual Report the second-best in the world on account of its extensive functionality.
Other surveys also delivered a very positive assessment of Hannover Re’s overall IR efforts. The company placed sixth within the MDAX category in the IR rankings published by the business magazine Capital, while it came in at number 7 in a survey conducted by Thomson Extel. In the European IR Perception Study carried out by Institutional Investor magazine we placed twelfth in the “insurers” category.
Stable shareholding structure
The shareholding structure of Hannover Re was stable in the year under review. The interest held by Talanx AG remained unchanged, while the stake held by private investors grew by 0.3 percentage points to 8.1%, causing the proportion in the hands of institutional investors to contract slightly to 41.7%.
Within our free float the proportionate holdings in Germany and the United States increased slightly in the year under review, rising by 1.9 percentage points in Germany to 42.5% and 1.1 percentage points in the US to 23.6%. A clear shift from Belgium to Luxembourg was observed within the Benelux countries. The percentage share attributable to these three countries nevertheless remained virtually unchanged at 8.6% (previous year: 8.7%). Proportionate holdings in the United Kingdom and France, on the other hand, recorded declines to stand at 17.8% (–2.1 percentage points) and 1.3% (–1.4 percentage points) respectively.