 |
The Cincinnati Insurance
Company ■ The Cincinnati Indemnity Company
The Cincinnati Casualty Company ■ The Cincinnati Specialty Underwriters Insurance Company
The Cincinnati Life Insurance
Company ■ CFC Investment Company ■ CSU Producer Resources Inc. |
Investor Contact: Dennis E. McDaniel,
513-870-2768
CINF-IR@cinfin.com
Media Contact: Joan O. Shevchik, 513-603-5323
Media_Inquiries@cinfin.com
Cincinnati Financial Corporation Holds
Shareholders' and Directors' Meetings
Cincinnati,
April 30, 2012 – Cincinnati Financial Corporation (Nasdaq: CINF) today announced that based on preliminary voting
results at the company’s annual meeting on April 28, 2012, shareholders elected 10 directors for one-year terms to the 14-member
board. Shareholders also ratified the selection of Deloitte & Touche LLP as independent registered public accounting firm,
approved a nonbinding proposal to approve the compensation for the company’s named executive officers and adopted the Cincinnati
Financial Corporation 2012 Stock Compensation Plan.
Kenneth W. Stecher, chairman of the board, commented: “We
thank shareholders for approving our selection of Deloitte & Touche and our nominees to the board. The directors who were elected
Saturday, as well as our continuing directors, combine their experiences from differing business backgrounds to guide long-term
strategic plans for Cincinnati Financial Corporation and to increase our long-term return to shareholders.”
Shareholders elected to the board for terms of one year:
| · | William F. Bahl, CFA, CIC, chairman of Bahl & Gaynor
Investment Counsel Inc. and the independent lead director of Cincinnati Financial Corporation |
| · | Steven J. Johnston, FCAS, MAAA, CFA, president and chief
executive officer of Cincinnati Financial Corporation |
| · | Kenneth C. Lichtendahl, a senior adviser for Nestle Waters
of North America |
| · | W. Rodney McMullen, president and chief operating officer
of The Kroger Company |
| · | Gretchen W. Price, executive vice president, chief financial
officer and administrative officer of Arbonne International LLC |
| · | John J. Schiff, Jr., CPCU, chairman of the executive committee
of Cincinnati Financial Corporation |
| · | Thomas R. Schiff, chairman and chief executive officer
for John J. & Thomas R. Schiff & Co. Inc. |
| · | Kenneth W. Stecher, chairman of the board of Cincinnati
Financial Corporation |
| · | John F. Steele, Jr., chairman and chief executive
officer of Hilltop Basic Resources Inc. |
| · | E. Anthony Woods, chairman and chief executive officer
of SupportSource LLC |
The board also met on April 28 and announced committee service
for the coming year, in line with the independence requirements of applicable law and the listing standards of Nasdaq:
| · | Audit – Kenneth C. Lichtendahl (chairman), William
F. Bahl, Gregory T. Bier, Linda Clement-Holmes, Gretchen W. Price, Douglas S. Skidmore and John F. Steele, Jr. |
| · | Compensation – W. Rodney McMullen (chairman), William
F. Bahl, Gregory T. Bier, Gretchen W. Price and E. Anthony Woods |
| · | Executive – John J. Schiff, Jr. (chairman), William
F. Bahl, Steven J. Johnston, W. Rodney McMullen, Kenneth W. Stecher, John F. Steele, Jr., Larry R. Webb and E. Anthony Woods |
| · | Investment – Kenneth W. Stecher (chairman), William
F. Bahl, Gregory T. Bier, Steven J. Johnston, W. Rodney McMullen, John J. Schiff, Jr., Thomas R. Schiff and E.
Anthony Woods; Richard M. Burridge, CFA, continues to serve as committee adviser |
| · | Nominating – William F. Bahl (chairman), Kenneth
C. Lichtendahl, Gretchen W. Price and Douglas S. Skidmore |
Cincinnati
Financial Corporation offers business, home and auto insurance, our main business, through The Cincinnati Insurance Company
and its two standard market property casualty companies. The same local independent insurance agencies that market those policies
may offer products of our other subsidiaries, including life and disability income insurance, annuities and surplus lines property
and casualty insurance. For additional information about the company, please visit www.cinfin.com.
| Mailing Address: |
Street Address: |
| P.O. Box 145496 |
6200 South Gilmore Road |
| Cincinnati, Ohio 45250-5496 |
Fairfield, Ohio 45014-5141 |
Safe Harbor
This is our “Safe Harbor” statement under the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our business is subject to certain risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results
to differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements in this report. Some of those risks and uncertainties
are discussed in our 2011 Annual Report on Form 10-K, Item 1A, Risk Factors, Page 26.
Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include,
but are not limited to:
| · | Unusually high levels of catastrophe losses due to risk concentrations,
changes in weather patterns, environmental events, terrorism incidents or other causes |
| · | Increased frequency and/or severity of claims |
| · | Inadequate estimates or assumptions used for critical accounting
estimates |
| · | Recession or other economic conditions resulting in lower
demand for insurance products or increased payment delinquencies |
| · | Declines in overall stock market values negatively affecting
the company’s equity portfolio and book value |
| · | Events resulting in capital market or credit market uncertainty,
followed by prolonged periods of economic instability or recession, that lead to: |
| o |
Significant or prolonged decline in the value of a particular security or group of securities and impairment of the asset(s) |
| o | Significant decline in investment income due to reduced or eliminated dividend payouts from a particular security or group
of securities |
| o | Significant
rise in losses from surety and director and officer policies written for financial institutions or other insured entities |
| · | Prolonged low interest rate environment or other factors
that limit the company’s ability to generate growth in investment income or interest rate fluctuations that result in declining
values of fixed-maturity investments, including declines in accounts in which we hold bank-owned life insurance contract assets |
| · | Increased competition that could result in a significant
reduction in the company’s premium volume |
| · | Delays or performance inadequacies from ongoing development
and implementation of underwriting and pricing methods or technology projects and enhancements expected to increase our pricing
accuracy, underwriting profit and competitiveness |
| · | Changing consumer insurance-buying habits and consolidation
of independent insurance agencies that could alter our competitive advantages |
| · | Inability to obtain adequate reinsurance on acceptable
terms, amount of reinsurance purchased, financial strength of reinsurers and the potential for non-payment or delay in payment
by reinsurers |
| · | Inability to defer policy acquisition costs for any business
segment if pricing and loss trends would lead management to conclude that segment could not achieve sustainable profitability |
| · | Events or conditions that could weaken or harm the company’s
relationships with its independent agencies and hamper opportunities to add new agencies, resulting in limitations on the company’s
opportunities for growth, such as: |
| o |
Downgrades of the company’s financial strength ratings |
| o |
Concerns that doing business with the company is too difficult |
| o |
Perceptions that the company’s level of service, particularly claims service, is no longer a distinguishing characteristic
in the marketplace |
| · | Actions of insurance departments, state attorneys general
or other regulatory agencies, including a change to a federal system of regulation from a state-based system, that: |
| o | Impose new obligations on us that increase our expenses or change the assumptions underlying our critical accounting estimates |
| o | Place the insurance industry under greater regulatory scrutiny or result in new statutes, rules and regulations |
| o | Restrict
our ability to exit or reduce writings of unprofitable coverages or lines of business |
| o | Add
assessments for guaranty funds, other insurance related assessments or mandatory reinsurance arrangements; or that impair our
ability to recover such assessments through future surcharges or other rate changes |
| o | Increase our provision for federal income taxes due to changes in tax law |
| o | Increase our other expenses |
| o | Limit our ability to set fair, adequate and reasonable rates |
| o | Place us at a disadvantage in the marketplace |
| o | Restrict our ability to execute our business model, including the way we compensate agents |
| · | Adverse outcomes from litigation or administrative proceedings |
| · | Events or actions, including unauthorized intentional circumvention
of controls, that reduce the company’s future ability to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting under
the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 |
| · | Unforeseen departure of certain executive officers or other
key employees due to retirement, health or other causes that could interrupt progress toward important strategic goals or
diminish the effectiveness of certain longstanding relationships with insurance agents and others |
| · | Events, such as an epidemic, natural catastrophe or terrorism,
that could hamper our ability to assemble our workforce at our headquarters location |
| · | Difficulties with technology or data security breaches,
including cyber attacks, that could negatively affect our ability to conduct business and our relationships with agents,
policyholders and others |
Further,
the company’s insurance businesses are subject to the effects of changing social, economic and regulatory environments.
Public and regulatory initiatives have included efforts to adversely influence and restrict premium rates, restrict the ability
to cancel policies, impose underwriting standards and expand overall regulation. The company also is subject to public and regulatory
initiatives that can affect the market value for its common stock, such as measures affecting corporate financial reporting and
governance. The ultimate changes and eventual effects, if any, of these initiatives are uncertain.
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