Saturday, December 27, 2008

Battle for insurance market’s top spot

After the financial results for January-September 2008 were made public, the local insurance market leader is still uncertain, with Q3 of the year likely to cast light on the matter.
The 2009 RCA campaign (third-party liability auto insurance) could bring about a change in insurance market leader in the last quarter of this year, a position held since 2002 by the Allianz-Tiriac insurer. After announcing its results for January-September 2008, Allianz-Tiriac is once again at the top, with a volume of gross subscribed premiums of over 285 million euro.
The Vienna Insurance Group-owned Omniasig is second, with gross subscribed premiums in the first three quarters worth 252.4 million euro.
According to Business Standard daily, Omniasig announced a 48.74% rise in gross subscribed premiums [Ed. n. growth was calculated on the lei-denominated value] compared to year-on-year, which constitutes an advance of almost double compared to the general evolution of the insurance market estimated for the first three quarters.
The growth reported by Omniasig was sustained by a surprising evolution on the property insurance segment, which rose 98.51% compared to September 2007, according to company figures.
The property-type insurance (against flooding and natural calamities) brought 118.88 million lei. Moreover, the farm insurance segment went up to 430%, up to 6.38 million lei.
“The significant growth of the property segment over January-September 2008 is the result of Omniasig’s policy to diversify the portfolio with a view to diminishing the share of car insurance.
This policy will also be applied by the company in the future,” company representatives told Business Standard.
No-fault insurance also registered significant growth, of 82.87%, while RCA insurance rose 20.89%. The battle for third-party auto insurance takes place at the end of the year, and this insurance could change the positions held by Allianz-Tiriac and Omniasig. While the current market leader presently has a more reserved policy in terms of auto insurance, Omniasig has been aggressive in its strategy in the past few years for auto insurance, aiming to raise its market share.

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