Ladies and Gentlemen,

2008 will be remembered as the year in which the financial crisis shook the very foundations of capital markets like an earthquake, brought financial institutions crashing down like a house of cards, opened up gaping cracks in the real economy and relegated the preceding subprime crisis to the status of a mere temblor. Looking back, the year under review has quite rightly been branded as an “annus horribilis”.

Although our Group net income similarly bears the marks of the financial crisis, it would be wrong for the Talanx Group to take a wholly negative view of 2008: not only did Talanx survive the turmoil largely unscathed – the Group made good progress despite the crisis.

There can be no question that the Talanx Group too – as a large institutional investor in international capital markets – was unable to divorce itself from their downward slide, especially as the financial crisis impacted virtually all asset classes worldwide. The price slump on international equity markets was thus also the crucial factor that shaped our income statement for 2008. The severe repercussions on our investment income prevented us reaching our profit target: as far as Group net income is concerned, it may be stated that the financial crisis took a substantial chunk out of our Group’s earnings. The net investment income of EUR 1.6 billion came in well below the previous year’s level of EUR 2.7 billion. The contraction in the operating profit (EBIT) to EUR 0.6 billion from EUR 1.5 billion in the previous year was attributable almost exclusively to this effect.

In terms of catastrophe losses, 2008 ranked as one of the most costly years since records began. The burden of catastrophe losses and major claims incurred by the Talanx Group was similarly heavier than expected. Hurricanes “Gustav” and “Ike” alone took a net toll on the Group’s account of around EUR 240 million altogether.

So much, then, for the bad news about the Group – but what about the good news? First of all, I would like to emphasize that the financial crisis has in no way changed the Group’s good market positioning and financial strength – we continue to enjoy a healthy and very solid financial foundation.

What goals had we set ourselves for 2008 and how did we match up to them?

Our insurance business is in excellent shape and delivered a very pleasing performance. In Property/Casualty Primary Insurance and Non-Life Reinsurance our goal is to maintain profitability, even if this means accepting temporary losses of market share. In this we were successful: despite the heavy burden of catastrophe losses we achieved a good combined ratio of 95.2% in 2008 that comfortably improved on the previous year. The Group segment of Property/Casualty Primary Insurance closed with a very good result despite the financial crisis and sometimes difficult market conditions. With organic growth of more than 2% foreign business played its part in the favorable development.