Groupamas turnover soars 18% in 2008
The three companies posted premiums worth 852.2 million lei in 2007.
The insurers paid total damages of 549.4 million lei in 2008 for both general and life insurance segments.
The GPW from general insurance amounted to 882.8 million lei in 2008, a 21 percent y/y hike, with the Casco auto policies accounting for the largest chunk of the portfolio.
The life insurance segment cumulated GPW of 120.8 million lei, a slip of 1.8 percent on 2007, stemming mainly from the change in the accounting reporting standard.
Asiban contributed 60.4 percent to the total GPW in 2008, BT Asigurari 31 percent and OTP Garancia Asigurari 8.6 percent.
Groupama pumped a total 65 million euros inthe three insurers it controls in Romania, Asiban, BT Asigurari and OTP Garancia Asigurari, to give a hand with the current financing operations and merger procedures.
The money was used for raising the capitals at the three companies as follows: 139 million lei at Asiban, 92 million lei at BT Asigurari and 29 million lei at OTP Garancia Asigurari.
Groupama invested more than 500 million euros in Romania since entering the market a year ago, turning into the largest foreign investor in this field. Moreover, the company plans to continue expansion in Romania and to become an important player, not only in life insurance, but also in general insurance.
The merger of the three companies to create Groupama Asigurari, if approved, is to be finalized toward the end of this year. Consequently, the new company would count 500 agencies and its headcount would reach 2,800.
Compared to 2007’s financial results, Groupama, one of the leading mutual insurers in Europe, recorded a strong activity growth, by 9.2%. In spite of much turbulence faced by financial markets, Groupama succeeded to reach a 16,232 million euro turnover in 2008 and 661 million euro operating profit recorded by the group, up 66.1% compared to 2007.