“If Astra’s majority shareholder does not decide to remove the Uniqa brand from the company’s logo, we will take legal action in this matter, because in Romania there can only be one company under the Uniqa brand. We hope to solve this problem by year-end,” said Brandstetter.
Uniqa became shareholder in 2005 of Astra Asigurari, the latter controlled by businessman Dan Grigore Adamescu through the Nova Trade group, when Uniqa acquired a 27 percent share package. One year later, Astra’s shareholders approved the adding of the Uniqa brand in the company’s logo. Uniqa and Adamescu agreed that Uniqa would fully take over Astra Asigurari, but negotiations failed. The Uniqa group did not forego the acquisition of a local company, taking over the Unita insurer from Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) last fall. Uniqa officials said, after the closing of the VIG deal, that Uniqa will keep the 27 percent Astra share package, but decided to withdraw its name from the Astra-Uniqa’s logo.
