ASF vice-president, Cornel Coca-Constantinescu, told a press conference Tuesday that Astra’s situation would have been different if the resolution mechanism had existed one or two years ago. He added the company’s situation would have been better because it is very important the structure of a portfolio of a company that can face recovery or resolution. According to Constantinescu, if the law regulating company resolution had existed a couple of years ago, it would have been good for Astra to be subject to a recovery plan and ASF could have identified all risks the company was exposed to and a part of its portfolio would have been capitalized.
Asked whether Astra could have been saved if the company resolution law had been voted before the decision to place the insurer under bankruptcy, Coca-Constantinescu said the insurer could have been saved, although he finds it hard to give an exact answer.
On August 26, 2015, ASF asked for the bankruptcy of Astra Asigurari, which had been under special administration after it failed to raise RON425 million for the share capital hike. At that time, the company had 1.8 million insurers with 2.5 million valid insurance policies. ASF’s request for Astra bankruptcy came one day after the insurer’s majority shareholders, The Nova Group Investments and Epsilon Estate Provider, said they want to inject the necessary RON425 million into the company in two stages and asked ASF to revoke the special administrator KPMG.
The Nova Group Investments Romania SA owns a 72.71% stake in Astra and Epsilon Estate Provider SRL owns a 26.27% stake. Both companies are owned by local businessman Dan Adamescu.
KPMG Restructuring was temporarily appointed judicial administrator for Astra Asigurari by Bucharest Court on December 3. KPMG Restructuring is to draw up, in the upcoming period, a strategy for an efficient patrimony liquidation by business transfer of insurance portfolios and by individual sale of the other assets.