Capital and Liquidity

Our capital base was stable at €10,338 million (year-end 2010: €10,357 million). The slight change is due to the addition of the H1 2011 result (€180 million) offset by dividend payments and coupon payments to holders of equity instruments (€-101 million), revaluations and changes in foreign currency (€-128 million).

Two dividend payments were made in H1 2011. In April, an amount of €57 million was paid out. This consists of €15 million in final dividend on preference shares and €42 million as final dividend on ordinary shares. In H1 2011, coupon payments of €44 million were also paid on hybrid capital other equity instruments).

Group solvency, compared to year-end 2010, shows an increase of 4%- point to 224%. The solvency of the insurance entities increased to 233% (year-end 2010: 227%), also due to legal mergers of insurance entities. Achmea’s external borrowings, excluding banking and finance operations, increased to €1,014 million (year-end 2010: €825 million). Debt leverage (debt including hybrid capital instruments divided by total equity plus debt minus goodwill) increased from 22.0% at year-end 2010 to 23.3%.