Helvetia increases its share in Nationale Suisse Freitag, 20. Dezember 2013 - 07:06

St.Gallen, 20 December 2013

Media release

The Helvetia Group announces that the Helvetia Beteiligungen AG has taken over a share package from the Gebäudeversicherung Bern (GVB) in the Swiss National-Versicherungs-Gesellschaft AG (Nationale Suisse) amounting to 5.27 per cent. With this, Helvetia Beteiligungen AG is now in the possession of a share of Nationale Suisse of a total of 12.70 per cent. Together with the Patria Co-operative, which holds a further 5.00 per cent, the Helvetia Group now exceeds the registration threshold of 15 per cent with its share of 17.70 per cent. Silence was agreed concerning the purchase price. With this purchase, Helvetia is reinforcing its position as a core shareholder.

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About Helvetia Group

In over 150 years, Helvetia Group has grown from a number of Swiss and foreign insurance companies into a successful insurance group that does business everywhere in Europe. Today, Helvetia has branch offices in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy and France, and routes some of its investment and financing activities through subsidiaries and fund companies in Luxembourg and Jersey. The Group is headquartered in St. Gallen in Switzerland. Helvetia is active in the life, property and casualty and reinsurance business, and almost 5,200 employees provide services to more than 2.7 million customers. With a business volume of CHF 7.0 billion, Helvetia posted a net profit of CHF 333.1 million in the 2012 financial year. The Helvetia Holding registered share is traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the symbol HELN.

Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements

This document was prepared by Helvetia Group and may not be copied, altered, offered, sold or otherwise distributed to any other person by any recipient without the consent of Helvetia Group. Although all reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the facts stated herein are correct and the opinions contained herein are fair and reasonable, where any information and statistics are quoted from any external source such information or statistics should not be interpreted as having been adopted or endorsed as accurate by Helvetia Group. Neither Helvetia Group nor any of its directors, officers, employees and advisors nor any other person shall have any liability whatsoever for loss howsoever arising, directly or indirectly, from any use of this information. The facts and information contained in this document are as up to date as is reasonably possible but may be subject to revision in the future. Neither Helvetia Group nor any of its directors, officers, employees or advisors nor any other person makes any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this document.

This document may contain projections or other forward-looking statements related to Helvetia Group which by their very nature involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and there is a risk that predictions, forecasts, projections and other outcomes described or implied in forward-looking statements will not be achieved. We caution you that a number of important factors could cause results to differ materially from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements. These factors include: (1) changes in general economic conditions, in particular in the markets in which we operate; (2) the performance of financial markets; (3) changes in interest rates; (4) changes in currency exchange rates; (5) changes in laws and regulations, including accounting policies or practices; (6) risks associated with implementing our business strategies; (7) the frequency, magnitude and general development of insured events; (8) mortality and morbidity rates; (9) policy renewal and lapse rates. We caution you that the foregoing list of important factors is not exhaustive; when evaluating forward-looking statements, you should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to Helvetia Group on the date of its publication and Helvetia Group assumes no obligation to update such statements unless otherwise required by applicable law.

The purpose of this document is to inform the shareholders of Helvetia Group and the public about the increase in the shareholding in Nationale Suisse. This document does not constitute an offer or a solicitation to exchange, buy or subscribe to securities, nor does it constitute an offering circular as defined by Art. 652a of the Swiss Code of Obligations or a listing prospectus as defined by the listing rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange. Should Helvetia Group in the future make one or more capital increases, investors should make their decision to buy or to subscribe for new shares or other securities solely based on the relevant offering circular. This document is also available in German, French and Italian. The German version is binding.