Austrian group Uniqa plans to buy Unita Vienna Insurance Group

Austrian-based Uniqa Group intends to buy Unita Vienna Insurance Group, after the company reached an agreement with the owner of the Romanian insurer, another Austrian company - Vienna Insurance Group, Uniqa announced yesterday.

The deal has to be approved by the supervisory authorities first, but could be concluded by the end of September 2008, a Uniqa release states. Unita is one of the biggest insurance firms in Romania, with an almost 6.5 percent market share. In 2007, the company underwrote premiums worth 142 million euros, the number of clients reached around 550,000, whilst the number of employees reached 850.
"With Unita, the Uniqa group will consolidate its position in Central and Eastern Europe. With a population of 22 million people, Romania is among the biggest markets in the region and has a high growth potential," Uniqa's general manager Konstantin Klien was quoted as saying in the release.
As a result of the deal, Uniqa, which also signed an agreement to take over Astra Asigurari, becomes the fourth-largest player on the domestic insurance market.
"Uniqa is in talks with the Romanian majority shareholder of Astra to take over the company in its entirety," the release of the Austrian group adds.
Established in 1990, Unita was taken over by Vienna Insurance Group in 2001.
The financial results for the first quarter of this year put the company among the top five Romanian insurers on the market in terms of gross premiums, with a 6.5 percent market share.
The distribution network numbers 40 branches and more than 300 offices.
The insurance market in Romania reached 2.14 billion euros in 2007, an increase of 32.2 percent compared with 2006.
The entire Uniqa group underwrote insurance premiums worth 5.3 billion euros in 2007, an increase of 3.6 percent compared on the previous year, whilst profit went up by 42.7 percent and reached 340 million euros.