Insurer VIG doubles profit in Romania during first nine months of 2015

Newsroom 24/11/2015 | 14:03

Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) posted a EUR 5.5 million profit (before taxes) on the Romanian insurance market for the first nine months of 2015, according to the group’s financial statement. This was a strong leap from the EUR 2.6 million registered during the same period of last year.

Gross written premiums (GWP) grew strongly by 23.3 percent to a total of EUR 300.6 million, with the largest share being held by property and casualty GWP (EUR 241.8 million, a 15.9 percent increase y-o-y), followed by life GWP (EUR 58.8 million, up 66.8 percent y-o-y). The high increase seen by the life segment was mainly due to sales of unit-linked products through the local Erste Group subsidiary, the company states.

The company’s combined ratio improved from last year’s 109.3, but still remained slightly above the 100 percent mark, at 102.2.

At group level, in the first nine months VIG generated total premiums of EUR 6.9 billion (-1.8 percent y-o-y). Without single-premium products, this represents a solid increase of 2.5 percent.

With an operating profit of EUR 370.3 million, the group saw a EUR 195 million impairment following an IT system check, leading to a profit before taxes of EUR 175.3 million.