“Romania is the next Poland, although it has been through a crisis. We are expecting GDP growth over 4-5% higher than in Western Europe in the next few years,” de Vaucleroy, who is also in charge of life insurance business of the company, told a news conference in Bordeaux. The conference is held every year to announce the company’s strategy for the next few years. “We will support the company in the first five or six years. Life insurance is a long-term investment,” Axa has already invested over EUR10 million in Romania and is ready to continue to invest.
“Local subsidiaries in the East will be able to cover future investments from their day-to-day operations, but there are also countries, as is the case of Romania, where massive investments will be needed in the next few years,” said de Vaucleroy, who added that the next investment would be of up to EUR10 million.
French giant Axa, with EUR91 billion revenue in 2010, the world’s top insurer in terms of revenue last year according to Fortune 500, entered the Eastern European market by the acquisition of Swiss company Winterthur, in 2006, with its European position still far from its international one.
Axa posted around EUR600 million in turnover in 2010 in Eastern Europe (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine) and a profit of EUR1 million.
“It’s true we entered this market later and are not among the top players, but in terms of new business (new policies, i.e. premium renewals) we rank among the top three companies in most Eastern European countries,” de Vaucleroy added.
Axa entered the Romanian market in January 2010 by acquiring Omniasig Asigurari de Viata life insurance arm from Vienna Insurance Group (Austria), but launched operations in May 2011. In 2010 the company underwrote gross premiums of around EUR4 million, 20% lower than in the preceding year, and plans to double its revenue in 2011.