Investor Relations activities
We further expanded our Investor Relations activities in 2010. Most strikingly, the number of roadshow days was almost double that of the previous year. Altogether, we held 22 roadshows and took part in nine investor conferences. On these trips and also by way of separate conference calls and visits to our offices in Hannover we were able to cultivate a personal dialogue in numerous discussions with institutional investors and analysts. Along with the financial centres of New York, London and Frankfurt, which are a regular stop on our travels, we returned to Boston, Paris, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Munich and Zurich in the year under review and added Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles and Geneva to our itinerary. Investors and analysts had another opportunity for a lively exchange with the Executive Board at our analysts’ conferences, which we again held same-day in Frankfurt and London one day after the press briefing on the annual results. Conference calls for investors and analysts were also held following the publication of the quarterly results and in connection with any exceptional developments.
In the year just-ended we also optimised the online offerings available on our Investor Relations website. Not only did we expand the range of available information, e.g. in the form of an online fact sheet, we also significantly enhanced the userfriendliness of the online version of our Annual Report. These steps were already recognised in the year under review: our Investor Relations website was selected as the best in the MDAX by the company NetFederation, and our HTML Annual Report moved up 13 places in the Kirchhoff ranking to number 4 in the MDAX.
Other surveys also delivered a pleasing assessment of Hannover Re’s overall Investor Relations activities. The company placed fourth within the MDAX category in the IR rankings published by the business magazine Capital, while it came in at number 11 in a survey conducted by Thomson Extel. In the European IR Perception Study carried out by Institutional Investor magazine we placed tenth in the “insurers” category.
Our annual Investors’ Day – the thirteenth time this event has been held – was again well attended by analysts and investors alike in the year under review. The most notable topics covered included the future challenges facing the insurance industry against the backdrop of Solvency II, the significance of the Market Consistent Embedded Value (MCEV) for life reinsurance business, the importance of the Chinese market for Hannover Re going forward as well as – along with an update on the level of our reserves – the handling of retrocessions within the Hannover Re Group.
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% to 7.8%, causing the proportion in the hands of institutional investors to contract slightly to 42.0%.
Turning to the breakdown of our free float by countries, the proportionate holding attributable to Germany increased sharply in the year under review by 4.1% to 40.6%, while the US share contracted. The relative holdings attributable to other countries changed only marginally in comparison with the end of the previous year.