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