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Groupama completes Asiban acquisition in 350 million euro deal

Insurance group Groupama completed on Wednesday the full acquisition of the local insurance company Asiban in a deal worth 350 million euros, reads a release on Wednesday to Agerpres.

Following the transaction, Groupama climbed to the 3rd position on the domestic insurance market, according to the results in 2007.

Groupama took over the entire share capital of Asiban SA from the Romanian Commercial Bank (BCR SA), BRD-Groupe Societe Generale SA (Romanian Development Bank), Banca Transilvania SA, the Savings Bank (CEC Bank), in their capacity as sellers.

The acquisition reflects the intention of Groupama to develop its activity abroad, especially on the Central and Eastern European markets. Romania represents a major objective of this strategy, which has already been materialized through the acquisition of the insurance companies BT Asigurari and OTP Garancia Asigurari, reads a release of the general manager of Groupama International Jean-Francois Lemoux.

Having been set up back in 1996 by four of the most important Romanian banks, Asiban ranked 3rd among the insurance companies in 2007, with a market share of 8 percent on the life and general insurance markets. Besides its own distribution market, Asiban owns also a national distribution platform including mainly brokers and independent operators. In 2007, Asiban recorded gross subscribed premiums worth 185.8 million euros, that is a growth by 39 percent as against last year's figures and by almost 7 percent as against the average on the Romanian market.

'We are going to focus in the interval ahead on investments in the consolidation of our companies, by widely communicating the new brand which will be launched this autumn and also on the launch of new products, improvement of the information systems and an investment in the long run in the human capital,' Lemoux added.

Groupama announced 14.9 billion euros in revenues last year. With 11 million customers and more than 30,000 employees, Groupama is operating in 11 countries, especially in Europe and aims at reaching a position among the first ten insurers on the continent. Groupama also intends to develop its operations worldwide, on all the segments of the insurance market.

The group consolidated its development in the Central and Eastern Europe by signing an exclusive regional partnership on the long run with OTP Bank regarding the distribution of the life and general insurance and also through the acquisition 100 percent of OTP Garanacia, which is one of the leaders on the Hungarian insurance market, together with its insurance subsidiaries in Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia.

Sursa: http://www.actmedia.ro

Tags: groupama insurance acquisition asiban market million otp cec bcr euro brd

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