“The trend of the market is alarming. The decline comes after insurers cut premiums to gain more clients and the volume of policies sold was lower,” comments Bogdan Andriescu, chairman of the trade association of insurance brokers, UNSICAR.
The ranking of the top ten general insurance companies did not change that much and Astra remained in the lead. Astra is controlled by businessman Dan Adamescu and posted a little more than 1 billion lei (EUR230 million) in revenue from premiums in 2011.
Its revenue, however, fell by 7.5% because of lower sales of auto liability policies, which would be used in the past as a hook to get customers. It sold more home insurance policies but even so it could not compensate for the decline in the sales of mandatory auto liability insurance policies.
The dependence on the auto segment affected the insurance market severely during the crisis, as a result of the decline in sales of cars and of the leasing market. Insurers are now trying to get away from this segment of their business and sell more home and general liability insurance policies.
“Insurance should pay more attention to customers’ needs and come up with products that meet them. Competition is really fierce, though, and someone has to give the lead,” believes Cristian Fugaciu, general manager of insurance broker Marsh. “Such a trend is already visible on the auto segment but there are still insurance lines where quotes remain surprisingly low.”
Second leading general insurer was German-held Allianz-Tiriac as in 2010, whose gross written premiums stood at RON812 million, down almost 14% on the previous year. Allianz lost the lead in the general insurance ranking in 2010, after its revenue shrank by 20% due to the lower sales of comprehensive auto insurance policies.
Omniasig, a company controlled by Austrian insurer Vienna Insurance Group (VIG), has not published its results yet but ZF’s calculations based on the trend of its business for the first nine months of 2011, indicate it remained number three on the market with about RON800 million in gross written premiums.
VIG owns two more top ten general insurers, Asirom and BCR Asigurari, which rank fifth and sixth, with RON630 million and RON441 million in premiums. The two traded places in the ranking, as Asirom posted growth in revenue by 41%, while BCR Asigurari’s written premiums fell by more than 15%.
Asirom’s revenue increased as it gained ore customers on the auto liability policy segment, after slashing prices early last year. Asirom also sells life insurance, while Omniasig and BCR Asigurari do not.
The Austrian owner surprisingly decided to consolidate its Romanian operations last year so that it will have Omniasig and BCR Asigurari merge. The new entity will use the name and logo of Omniasig and will become the new market leader with over RON1.2 billion in revenue. The merger might become effective in April.
Groupama remains fourth among general insurers, with RON663 million in written premiums. The company entered the local market via the merger of Asiban and BT Asigurari in 2009, but has constantly lost market share over the last two years. It paid half a billion euros to buy Asiban and BT Asigurari before the crisis.
The insurance market has been going through a process of consolidation by mergers and acquisitions over the last few years. For instance, Generali climbed one place in the ranking in 2011 after merging with Ardaf last year. The new entity posted RON418 million revenue, 26% less than the cumulated revenue of the two in 2010.
The last three companies in the top ten are Uniqa, Euroins and Carpatica Asigurari, with RON432 million, RON292 million and RON202 million in premiums. Euroins and Carpatica retained their 2010 positions, while Uniqa lost one place to Generali.
General insurance dropped by more than 6.5% last year, to RON6.2 billion, because of low sales of car policies. Insurers sold more home insurance policies, with the volume of gross written premiums exceeding RON675 million.
As for the life insurance business, which posted 4.5% growth last year, the top three companies remain ING Asigurari, BCR Asigurari de Viata and Alico in that order.
ING accounts for some 30% of the market, and its premiums reached RON554 million, while BCR Asigurari de Viata posted RON345 million and Alico RON225 million (according to ZF estimates) in revenue.
Next in the ranking are Generali (RON93.9 million), Allianz (RON86.3 million) and Asirom (RON83.4 million). The only notable change is the entry of BRD Asigurari de Viata among the top ten insurers, which doubled its revenue to RON44 million.
(English version by Loredana Frățilă-Cristescu)