Strong capital market interest, in part because of Talanx IPO
Despite relatively light losses and a rather unspectacular year overall, Hannover Re attracted strong interest from the capital market in 2012. This was due not least to the initial public offering announced by the parent company Talanx AG at the beginning of the year, which, as the year progressed, prompted a considerable need on the part of investors for dialogue about the implications for Hannover Re. Responding to these calls, we took part in altogether 14 capital market conferences (previous year: 14) and met locally with interested investors at 15 roadshows (previous year: 21). Our travel activities in 2012 were again focused on the financial centres of Frankfurt, London and New York, which we visited at least once a quarter. Along with Paris, Munich, Copenhagen, Geneva, Zurich, Lugano and Milan, our itinerary also included Toronto and San Francisco. Our 15th Investors’ Day, held on a rotating basis in London in 2012, was very well received. In total, some 60 analysts and institutional investors took the opportunity to engage in an intensive exchange of views with the Executive Board on current and future business prospects. The discussions focused on, among other things, management of our assets in the prevailing low interest rate environment as well as enterprise management based on the economic capital model and IVC (intrinsic value creation).
We devoted special attention to the topic of sustainability in the year under review: Hannover Re drew up its first sustainability report in accordance with the internationally recognised reporting standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The report covered altogether 42 Profile Disclosures, 6 Management Approaches to 34 Aspects and 84 Performance Indicators as well as the requirements specific to the financial services sector. Right from the outset, Hannover Re thereby fulfilled the medium Transparency Level B defined by the GRI.
Not only that, in the year under review our Investor Relations website was chosen for the second consecutive time as the best in the MDAX and the industry by the company NetFederation. We received thoroughly positive feedback from IR Global Rankings, which rated our HTML Annual Report as the third-best in Europe (previous year: second-best) and number four (previous year: number two) worldwide on account of its extensive functionality.