The information will be made public tomorrow, when the companies involved will make the announcement. Asirom's value on the market is some €169 million, while the value of the transaction will be about €80 million, according to market sources.
Taking over Asirom will bring VIG another 11 percent in market share. Ioan Niculae is one of the top agriculturalists, with some 25,000 hectares in use. He also owns about 50 percent of Asirom through Interagro and another 8 percent through Astra Ploiesti. Ioan Niculae has denied a possible takeover.
VIG directly controls Omniasig (97.78 percent) and Unita (99.99 percent). Omniasig has a 50 percent share of Omniasig Asigurari de Viata, while Unita owns 75.7 percent of Agras. Omniasig is second on the domestic general insurance market and is the main company VIG owns in Romania. The group also owns 35 brands in 17 countries. VIG has been present on the Romanian market since 2001, when it took control of Unita.
QVT Fund, the main Asirom shareholder, sold some 13 percent of Asirom's shares by mid-June for some €21 million, and withdrew from the company's shareholding structure. Asirom registered a RON 14 million profit (approximately €4 million), while the previous year the company registered some RON 36 million (€10 million) in losses. The company had a total income of RON 638 million (€181 million), 7.8 percent more than in 2005, and estimates for 2007 indicate a 15-20 percent increase in revenues.
In 2006, VIG subsidiaries registered gross profit of €2.8 million, five times higher than in 2005, and revenues of €236.89 million. Romanian companies owned by VIG doubled their gross profits, from €0.7 million at the end of March 2006, to some €1.3 million in Q1 2007, according to an announcement made yesterday by the group. Company data indicates that the four companies generated a general insurance volume worth €102.5 million, 78 percent more than by the end of March 2006. Life insurance brought some €3.7 million to the business (€3 million the year before).
VIG had a 37 percent share of the Central and Eastern European insurance market. Its main competitors in the region are Uniqa, Aviva, Allianz and ING. The group also has branches in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland and Hungary.
Profits
Romanian companies owned by VIG doubled their gross profits, from €0.7 million at the end of March 2006, to some €1.3 million in Q1 2007, according to an announcement made yesterday by the group.
