Rouf leaves behind a rise in Aviva's insurance business and 370,000 private pension clients

Shah Rouf, the Indian-born Briton who for the last three years has been at the helm of Romanian operations of the Aviva group, is to leave next month for a CEO position in Sri Lanka. He leaves behind a business that has grown, but is yet to become profitable.
The crisis year 2009 and the private pension campaign in 2008 have been the most difficult times for Shah Rouf (39), but also the best times, according to him.
"Aviva missed out on the time when the life insurance market was growing in 2000-2003, but we made up for it. I think 2009 was a very good year, we managed to boost our sales, and are now in positive territory," Rouf says.
In the first nine months of last year the life insurance market fell by 10%. In the same period, gross premiums underwritten by Aviva climbed by 5%, to around 70 million RON.
Rouf, who in mid-February will take over at the helm of a company within the Aviva group in Sri Lanka, leaves behind a life insurance company with higher turnover and a slightly higher market share. According to the latest yearly data, in 2008 the company's turnover climbed 68% against the end of 2006. The company's market share saw a slight rise, from 5.6% in 2006 to 5.8% in 2008. At the end of September 2009 Aviva accounted for 5.9% of the life insurance market.
However, Aviva has been in the red since its entry onto the Romanian market, in 2000. In 2008, for instance, Aviva Asigurari reported a 21.3 million-RON loss, compared with 15 million RON in the previous year. Shah Rouf says, however, that both the insurance company and the private pension one are expected to step into the black over the next three years.
"Our plan for the next three years, which we have recently presented to our shareholders, is to see our insurance and pension business break even in 2012."
Aviva's general manager says one of the biggest challenges for him in Romania was the campaign to join a mandatory private pension fund in September 2007 - January 2008 period, when 4 million young employees chose the fund they wanted to contribute to.
Aviva currently has around 357,000 clients for the mandatory private pension fund (2nd pillar) it is managing, and around 10,000 for its voluntary pensions fund.