Dr Thomas Schmuckli expected to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors

Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR
St.Gallen, 4 March 2022

The Board of Directors of Helvetia Holding AG plans for the long term with Dr Thomas Schmuckli as Chairman of the Board of Directors. He will be proposed for election at the next Shareholders' Meeting.

As announced in December 2021, Doris Russi Schurter for personal reasons will not stand for re-election as Chairwoman of the Board of Directors at the next Helvetia Holding AG Shareholders' Meeting. Her designated successor, Dr Axel Lehmann, is also no longer available to Helvetia after having been elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Credit Suisse Group. Following a review, the Helvetia Holding AG Board of Directors has now decided to plan for the long term with Dr Thomas Schmuckli as Chairman of the Board of Directors. At the 2022 Shareholders' Meeting, he will be proposed as the successor to Doris Russi Schurter as Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Dr Thomas Schmuckli has been a member and Vice-Chairman of the Helvetia Holding AG Board of Directors since 2018. He is currently a member of the Strategy and Governance Committee and a member of the Investment and Risk Committee. He has also been Chairman of Helvetia's anchor shareholder Patria Genossenschaft since 2019. He will relinquish this mandate with effect from 13 May 2022.

A trained lawyer, he held a number of management positions in the General Counsel area of the Credit Suisse Group from 1993 to 2013. In addition, he has been Chairman of the Board of Directors of Credit Suisse Funds AG since 2012. He will relinquish this post with effect from 13 April 2022. Dr Thomas Schmuckli was elected to the Board of Directors of Bossard Holding AG in 2000 and has served as its Chairman since 2007.

"Dr Thomas Schmuckli knows Helvetia very well and closely accompanied and helped shape the development of the helvetia 20.25 strategy as a member of the Strategy and Governance Committee. As an experienced manager with a broad professional background, he will continue to drive the development of Helvetia into a European financial services provider together with the Board of Directors and Executive Management", explains Doris Russi Schurter, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Helvetia Holding AG. 

The ordinary Shareholders' Meeting of Helvetia Holding AG will be held on 29 April 2022 at the Olma Messe in St.Gallen. The shareholders will be able to attend the Shareholders' Meeting in person for the first time since 2019.

About the Helvetia Group
In over 160 years, the Helvetia Group has grown from a number of Swiss and foreign insurance companies into a successful international insurance group. Helvetia is one of the leading all-line insurers in its home market of Switzerland. With the countries Germany, Italy, Austria and Spain, which have been combined to form the Market Area Europe, the company has a second strong pillar. With its Specialty Markets market area, Helvetia is also present in France and in selected regions worldwide. Some of its investment and financing activities are managed through subsidiaries and fund companies in Luxembourg. The Group is headquartered in St.Gallen, Switzerland.
Helvetia is active in the life and non-life business, and also offers customised specialty lines and reinsurance cover. Its business activities focus on retail customers as well as small and medium-sized companies and larger corporates. With some 11,600 employees, the company provides services to more than 7 million customers. With a business volume of CHF 9.71 billion, Helvetia generated an IFRS result after tax of CHF 281.7 million in financial year 2020. The registered shares of Helvetia Holding are traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the symbol HELN.

Cautionary note
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. The German version of this document is decisive and binding. Versions of the document in other languages are made available purely for information purposes. 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 as well as (10), the realisation of economies of scale as well as synergies. 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.