“In 2014, the company’s underwritings rose 50% to RON50 million and its turnover was strongly backed by the takeover of Eureko Romania’s insurance policy portfolio which brought nearly 20,000 policies. Had it not been for the takeover, Aegon Romania’s insurance premiums would have increased 10% to 15%,” Maioreanu told a press conference Wednesday.
Maioreanu also said that Aegon Romania ranked ninth among local life insurers at the end of 2014, with a market share of over 3%.
“We target rapid growth and we are interested in making new acquisitions on the life insurance market. Our main focus is on top ten companies,” the general manager of Aegon Romania also said.
Romania’s five largest insurers by premiums in 2014 are ING Asigurari de Viata (37.39%), Metropolitan Life (16.1%), BCR Asigurari de Viata (8.76%), Asirom (5.95%) and Allianz-Tiriac Asigurari (5.92%). The ranking also includes BRD Asigurari de Viata, Generali Romania, Eurolife ERB Asigurari de Viata, Grawe Romania and Groupama Romania.
The company’s portfolio in Romania exceeded 40,500 insurance policies at the end of 2014. Also, the number of claims granted to clients in 2014 was four times higher than in 2013, to RON1.6 million, due to the company’s accelerated development in the past year.
Aegon Pensii Private head, Marius Ratiu, who also attended the conference, said the value of assets reached RON1.7 billion at the end of 2014, from RON416 million in December 2013, due to the takeover of the pension fund administered by Eureko Pensii Private.
Ratiu expects Aegon Pensii Private to administer assets of over RON2 billion at the end of 2015, due to an increase in contributions to mandatory private pension funds (Pillar II), to 5% from the current 4.5%, and tapping the segment of voluntary private pension funds (Pillar III).
Dutch insurance group Aegon opened its Romanian subsidiary at the beginning of 2008. In January 2013, Aegon announced it was taking over the life insurance and private pension operations of Eureko Romania, part of Dutch financial group Achmea, and integrate them into Aegon’s operations on the local market.
The Dutch insurer’s underwritings rose 20% on the year in 2014, reaching EUR8.6 billion, and its profit rose 38%, to EUR1.2 billion.