IN Q1 2009: Generali Asigurări premiums rose 17.5%, up to 23.8 million lei

• Individual insurance policies amounted to 15.8 million lei, and group insurance policies amounted to 7.9 million lei

Ana Săbiescu

Gross subscribed premiums rose 17.5% YOY in Q1 2009, to 23.8 million lei. The company"s Q1 2009 profit reached 6.1 million lei.

Out of the company"s life insurance portfolio, individual insurance policies amounted to 67% (15.8 million lei), whereas group insurance policies amounted to 33%, (7.9 million in premiums).

General insurance policies helped increase the volume of subscribed premiums to 96.4 million lei, up 9.5% over March 31st, 2008.

The largest growing general insurance segments, were general civil liability policies (+90%), RCA and Green Card policies (+66%) as well as property damage insurance policies (+38%).

Marie Kováøová, General Manager of Generali Asigurări, said: "The results for the first quarter of 2009 were outstanding when it comes to subscribed premiums, especially if we take into account the hard economic context, which is affecting the Romanian insurance market as well. These numbers show that our business strategy that we adopted at the beginning of the year operates at optimum parameters and we can confidently move forward".

The goal of Generali Asigurări for 2009 is to focus on the life and non-auto segments, general retail and corporate insurance policies, without neglecting the other business lines, Mrs. Kováøová explained.

During Q1 2009, Generali Group had a total growth of 0.3% YOY, up to EUR 18.5 billion. General liability insurance policies rose 3.4%, to EUR 6.6 billion, with gross subscribed premiums dropping slightly (-1.4%) YOY, to EUR 11.9 billion.