Ardaf, one of the ten biggest insurance companies on the market, plans to end this year with gross underwritten premiums worth 100m euros, double the level reached last year.
"Our goal is to double gross underwritten premiums. As a financial result, we will probably break even in 2008," stated Daniel Tudor, Ardaf chairman.
Thus, Ardaf's turnover should rebound, after in 2007 the company's gross underwritten premiums shrank by 10% to 50 million euros. In the same year, though, the insurer managed to slash its losses by 70% to 10.5m euros.
"2007 was a good year for us, when we achieved our main target, namely driving losses down," states Tudor. He says the losses were triggered by obligations of the past years that the company had to settle in 2007. The insurer last year settled total claims worth 38.2m euros.
According to some market sources, the company will be sold by its majority shareholder, PPF Investments, to the Generali PPF joint venture "bundled" with RAI Asigurari, with the deal being in a final stage.
Daniel Tudor plans to bring the company back among the top five players on the market in the next two years, with the player ranking 12th after the first 9 months of last year.
"We have a three-year turnaround plan for the company that we have implemented since 2007. It is about rebuilding our portfolio, gaining a top five position on the insurance market and improving our profitability," says Tudor.
"We'll launch new products this year, but we first want to review all the products in the portfolio to adapt them to current market conditions. We won't exclusively focus on auto liability insurance (RCA), but launch campaigns for all insurance types," explains Tudor.
Ardaf last year started a campaign to reposition itself on the market, which will be continued this year.
Ardaf one week ago set up its first car claim settlement centre, similar to the ones set up in the past by Omniasig and BCR Asigurari. "We will set up another claim settlement centre in Bucharest and maybe other centres in the country in the future," says Tudor. Ardaf wants to focus more on the area of Bucharest, which was disregarded when Ovidiu Tender controlled the company, its chairman adds.
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