Businessman Ioan Niculae, who controls around 50% in Asirom through Interagro group, says he will not sell his stake in the insurance firm in the next two or three years.
Asirom is now worth some 160m euros on the stock market.
"Asirom is a very attractive firm to foreign investors, considering the number of proposals to start talks I've received from companies wanting to buy my stake and from investment banks interested in handling the deal," Ioan Niculae told ZF.
He maintains this is not the right moment to sell Asirom as the restructuring of the company, a process that started in August 2005, is not over yet.
"I've held talks with Axa, Wiener Staedtische, Allianz or Groupama, with 20 firms overall, but they haven't convinced me to sell," maintains Niculae.
"In 2-3 years, when restructuring is concluded, I may be interested in selling," says Asirom shareholder.
The company's restructuring primarily targets its portfolio, namely cutting down the weight of car insurance, which generates the largest part of claims, but also slashing expenses related to the acquisition of insurance policies.
Niculae estimates the company may hit turnover worth 250m euros this year, after in 2006 the gross premiums the company underwrote reached 170m euros.
This would mean a 47% increase considering that last year Asirom's turnover rose by less than 10% against 2005. The company last year generated gross income worth 4m euros, after logging losses of 10m euros in 2005.
"I don't expect profit to reach a spectacular level this year, it will probably be flat at the level of last year.
I'm concerned about the company's market share considering there's been a change in the structure of insurance. For two years, the company has been focusing on selling non-car insurance," states Niculae.
Asirom shareholders last year discussed about delisting the company, but because of the conflicts between Ioan Niculae and QVT and Broadhurst US investment funds, which sold their stakes in the meantime, the plans were dropped.
Asirom shareholders will have a general meeting in early July to operate a share capital increase by around 300,000 euros.
The capital increase of around 13m euros that was considered late last year will no longer be operated. "This capital increase will not be operated as Asirom's solvency has increased considerably," states Niculae. Now, the company has a share capital of almost 20m euros (63.8m RON).
In a few months, Asirom will organise a tender to implement a new IT system. "We've already received offers from companies from around the world and investments will be worth several million euros," says Ioan Niculae.
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