Around 700 of the employees of Omniasig, Asirom, BCR Asigurari and BCR Asigurari de Viata left the company or were laid off in 2010, and a further 400 parted ways with the four companies last year. Most employees who left the group last year were from BCR Asigurari, the company which this year merged with Omniasig and which had 880 employees left in December 2011.
The decline in employee numbers came at a time when the Austrian group started to restructure its spending amid a decline in policy sales.
The companies held by VIG in Romania last year wrote premiums worth a cumulated EUR502 million, down 5% compared to 2010. Omniasig and BCR Asigurari reported a 15% decline in sales, while Asirom and BCR Asigurari saw rises. VIG reported a loss of EUR12.8 million from Romanian-based operations, from a profit of EUR28.5 million in the previous year.
The merger between Omniasig and BCR Asigurari was also part of the efficiency drive, which started in the summer of last year and ended this month. The newly created entity, Omniasig, is the market leader with a 20% market share.
VIG is hoping to get cost cuts of EUR10 million as a result of the merger and the reduction in employee numbers and territorial units. According to sources on the insurance market, VIG plans to cut employee numbers by 10%, or about 250 people.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)