ALLIANZ GROUP 26 After three bearish years, confidence has returned to the stock market.  The surprisingly quick end of the war in Iraq allayed many fears on the part of the investors and paved the way for widespread market optimism. This change in mood also drove up stock market indicators. Considered over the entire year, the Allianz share price went up 23.9 percent and outperformed the corresponding Dow Jones EURO STOXX Insurance Index. Above all, we take this increase in value as a recognition of our decisive improvements in the operating business and we are pleased that after the very bad year of 2002, investors’ confidence is once again growing. The broad-based recovery of our business incited us to once again propose to distribute a dividend of 1.50 euros per share for the year 2003, even though the number of our shares  is now significantly higher. Since this recovery of our share price followed a massive dete- rioration over more than two years, it was not sufficient to post a positive performance in the ten-year comparison, which stands at an annual average minus 1.9 percent. If we extend the ob- servation period and look at the development of the Allianz share price over the last twenty years, the average increase comes to 8.2 percent per year.  *) Adjusted for capital measures (capital increase) Source: Thomson Financial Datastream  Current information on the development of the Allianz share price is available on the Internet at www.allianzgroup.com/investor-relations. After the difficult stock market years 2001 and 2002, the Allianz share got back on track in the reporting year. Parallel to the es- calation of the crisis in Iraq, however, our share price suffered another steep decline until March. But thereafter, it recovered very well and started a sustained catch-up rally, which ended with an annual plus of 23.9 percent. At that level, the Allianz share outperformed both the Dow Jones EURO STOXX Insur- ance (+ 16.5 percent) as well as the cross-industry Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 (+ 15.7 percent); but the recovery was weaker than that of the German stock index DAX (+ 37.1 percent). The rise of the Allianz share price after the capital increase is a con- vincing proof of trust and an indication that the market is well aware of our financial strength and our marked improvements in operations. The Allianz share gets back on track Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 40 60 80 100 120 Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 Dow Jones EURO STOXX Insurance Allianz Development of the Allianz share price versus Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 and Dow Jones EURO STOXX Insurance  indexed on the Allianz share price (Xetra) *) in  ¤