The Annual Integrated Report and Consolidated Financial Statements 2018 is drafted in compliance with currently effective regulations and it applies the IAS/IFRS international accounting standards as well as the International <IR> Framework.
Consolidated Financial Statements, for further details on basis of presentation and accounting principles
The Report is drawn up in euro, i.e. the functional currency used by the entity that prepares the Annual Integrated Report and Consolidated Financial Statement. The amounts are shown in million and rounded to the first decimal, unless otherwise reported. Therefore, the sum of each rounded amounts may sometimes differ from the rounded total.
The details by geographical area highlighted in this document reflect the Group’s managerial structure in place at the beginning of 2018 and effective for a large part of the year, made up of the business units of the three main markets - Italy, France and Germany - and four regional structures:
- ACEER: Austria, Central Eastern Europe (CEE) countries - Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia/ Montenegro, Romania, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Croatia - and Russia;
- International, consisting of Spain, Switzerland, Americas and Southern Europe, Asia, Europ Assistance and Other companies (including, Generali Global Health and Generali Employee Benefits);
- Investments, Asset & Wealth Management, which includes the main Group entities operating in investment advisory, asset management and financial planning;
- Group holding and other companies, which includes the Parent Company’s management and coordination activities, including Group reinsurance, other financial holding companies and suppliers of international services not included in the previous geographical areas.
Our reference market: positioning and performance
At 31 December 2018, the consolidation area increased from 423 to 455 companies, of which 419 were consolidated line-by-line and 36 measured with the equity method.
Each chapter of the Report meets one or more Content Elements envisaged by the International <IR> Framework issued by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC).
| We, Generali | ||
| Group highlights |  |
Performance |
| 2018 and 2019 key facts | |
Organisational overview and external environment |
| The Generali 2021 strategy | |
Strategy Performance Risks and opportunities |
| Our rules for running business with integrity | |
Organisational overview and external environment Risks and opportunities |
| Our purpose and the value creation | |
Organisational overview and external environment |
| Challenges and opportunities in the market context | |
Risks and opportunities |
| Our governance and remuneration policy | |
Governance |
| Our performance | |
Performance |
| Outlook | |
Outlook |
The Report also adopts the Guiding Principles of the International <IR> Framework.
The Strategic focus and future orientation principle is applied in the whole document. Indeed, our value creation is based on the strategy that includes the material aspects to the Group. The Materiality approach is presented in detail in the Consolidated Non-Financial Statement.
Consolidated Non-Financial Statement
In accordance with the Connectivity of information principle, the report should represent the combination and interrelatedness of the factors that influence the ability to create value over time. The key forms of connectivity used by Generali include the connectivity between qualitative and quantitative information, financial and non-financial information, that is coherent with the information included in other communication tools in accordance with the Core&More reporting approach. Other elements that improve the connectivity of information and the overall usefulness of the report are the cross-referencing , the graphic component and a Glossary at the end of this document to use in case of insurance sector’s terminology.
Generali maintains Stakeholder relationships in order to understand and meet their needs, especially their information and dialogue needs.
We regularly engage with investors, analysts and rating agencies. We meet them every quarter following our results’ presentation and in specific occasions, thus sharing the reporting required. We organise roadshows and we participate in sector conferences. Some of the main annual recurring occasions for interaction between the financial community and the Company’s top management are the annual Shareholders’ Meeting and the Investor Day. During the latter, in November 2018 we presented the new strategic plan. During the year we came into contact with more than 540 people - individual meetings and small group meetings - in the main financial centres of Europe and North America.
We regularly interact with regulators and the European and international Institutions to maintain good relationships and share authoritative and updated information in order to properly interpret and apply new regulations. We also offer our skills and contribute to public consultations for the definition of new laws and regulations in the sector, by providing, in view of the Group’s direct experience, concrete indications in order to safeguard the specificities of the Group and the insurance industry. To this purpose, we collaborate with several trade organizations and associations. Our active presence in these organizations allows us also to expand our knowledge of the different regulations and potential impacts.
We also engage customers, distributors and Group employees with a view to continuous improvement.
Challenges and opportunities of the market context
www.generali.com/our-responsibilities/responsible-business/stakeholder-engagement for different methods of dialogue with stakeholders
For some years we interact with students from the main Italian universities, providing them with specific sessions on the reporting approach adopted by Generali and its developments at a national and international level, while collecting their feedback and suggestions on the integrated report implementation through a specific survey. As from 2016, we have extended this experience to Group employees as well. Overall, we met more than 300 people in 2018.
The Conciseness principle is met through the issue of the Group Annual Integrated Report. The diagram below shows the shift from the Annual Integrated Report, drafted in accordance with the Materiality principle, to the Annual Integrated Report and Consolidated Financial Statements, compliant with regulations.
As for Reliability and completeness, the Report is supported by a structured information system, processing financial and non-financial information while ensuring their homogeneity and reliability. The performance indicators are used in the business management in line with the strategic plan. They refer to the whole Group unless otherwise indicated.
In accordance with the Consistency and Comparability principle, the report includes information that is consistent with the previous year, unless otherwise indicated, and the strategic objectives announced to the market.
The standard adopted in this Report for the disclosure of the material matters identified by the Group, including those non-financial matters envisaged by leg. decree 254/2016, is the Consolidated Set of GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards, issued in 2016 by the GRI-Global Reporting Initiative (GRI-Referenced claims), with reference to selected GRI Standards and indicators of the GRI G4 Financial Services Sector Disclosures.
Consolidated Non-Financial Statement
In accordance with the provision of GRI 101: Foundation, paragraph 3, references are made to the following GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards, in addition to GRI 103: Management Approach:
- GRI 102: General Disclosures 2016 - Disclosure 102- 9 Supply chain for the material matter Relations with distributors;
- GRI 102: General Disclosures 2016 - Disclosure 102-16 Values, principles, standards, and norms of behavior for the material matter Responsible business management;
- GRI 102: General Disclosures 2016 - Disclosure 102- 35 Remuneration policies for the material matter Responsible remuneration and incentives;
- GRI 102: General Disclosures 2016 - Disclosure 102- 43 Approach to stakeholder engagement for the material matter Quality of the customer experience;
- GRI 205: Anti-corruption 2016 - Topic-specific disclosure 205-2 (e - aggregated data) Communication and training about anti-corruption policies and procedures for the material matter Prevention of corruption;
- GRI 305: Emissions 2016 - Topic-specific disclosure 305-1 (b, d, g) Direct (Scope 1) GHG emissions, 305-2 (c, d, g) Energy indirect (Scope 2) GHG emissions, 305- 3 (b, e, g) Other indirect (Scope 3) GHG emissions, and 305-5 Reduction of GHG emissions for the material matter Climate change and natural disasters;
- GRI 404: Training and Education 2016 - Topic-specific disclosure 404-1 (a - aggregated data) Average hours of training per year per employees, e 404-3 (a - aggregated data) Percentage of employees receiving regular performance and career development reviews for the material matters Attracting talent and development of human capital and Employee engagement and promotion of a common culture;
- GRI 405: Diversity and Equal Opportunities 2016 - Topic- specific disclosure 405-1 (a) Diversity of governance bodies and employees for the material matter Diversity, inclusion and equal opportunities;
- GRI 413: Local Communities 2016 for the material matter Demographic and social change;
- GRI 418: Customer Privacy 2016 for the material matter Data and cyber security.
The following indicators of the GRI G4 Financial Services Sector Disclosures are also reported:
- FS7 Monetary value of products and services designed to deliver a specific social benefit for each business line broken down by purpose for the material matters Product and service development ad Insurance solutions promoting sustainable and responsible behaviour;
- FS8 Monetary value of products and services designed to deliver a specific environmental benefit for each business line broken down by purpose for the material matters Product and service development ad Insurance solutions promoting sustainable and responsible behaviour;
- FS11 Percentage of assets subject to positive and negative environmental or social screening for the material matter Responsible investments and underwriting.
The reporting process and methodologies to calculate indicators are included in a specific document.
Changes in the presentation of the performance indicators of the Group
All the comparative economic and performance indicators included in the Management Report were restated in line with the current consolidation scope and the review of the disclosure by geographical area as indicated above.
Changes presented in the document are also at constant scope, with the exclusion of discontinued or disposed operations at 31 December 2018 mentioned above from the comparative data.
As reported above, segment information is also enriched with the Asset Management segment as from the end of 2018.
The comparative KPIs included in this Report were restated as follows:
| (€ million) | 31/12/17 as previously published | change | 31/12/17 restated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross written premiums | 68,537 | -4,156 | 64,381 |
| Life | 47,788 | -3,956 | 43,832 |
| Property&Casualty | 20,749 | -201 | 20,548 |
| Life net cash inflows | 9,718 | 1,159 | 10,877 |
| Operating result | 4,895 | -182 | 4,713 |
| Life | 3,141 | -159 | 2,982 |
| Property&Casualty | 1,972 | -28 | 1,944 |
| Asset Magagement | - | 261 | 261 |
| Holding and other businesses | 59 | -222 | -163 |
| Consolidation adjustments | -278 | -33 | -311 |
| Non operating result | -1,102 | 2,211 | 1,109 |
| Asset Under Management | 541,976 | -55,361 | 486,615 |
| Group debt | 42,316 | -4,301 | 38,015 |
* It refers to liabilities related to investment contracts.
1 The Report includes links to web pages that might not exist in the future.
2 The reduction of total emissions amounted to t 17,262 CO2e compared to base year 2013. The latter was chosen since it is the baseline for the goal to reduce total emissions by 20% by 2020. The reduction was attributable to indirect emissions (Scope 2 and Scope 3). The gases included were: CO2, CH4 e N2O. The methodology adopted is the WRI GHG Corporate Standard Protocol, location-based method.