In the end of the 1980s, the company started expanding in central and eastern Europe, founding Kooperativa in Czechoslovakia.

In 2008, a new capital increase permitted the acquisition of the insurance business of Erste Group, which turned VIG to the market leader in central and eastern Europe.

[5] In March 2014, it was revealed that PZU and Vienna Insurance Group were in the race to acquire rival Lietuvos Draudimas for around $147 million.

Vienna Insurance Group is active in Austria, Albania, Bulgaria, Germany, Estonia, Georgia, Croatia, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Turkey, Hungary, Ukraine, Belarus and Bosnia and Herzegovina through interests it holds in insurance companies.

The major shareholder is Wiener Städtische Wechselseitiger Versicherungsverein – Vermögensverwaltung – Vienna Insurance Group, with a stake of about 70%.