Uniqua will write off €75 mln on ABS in 2007

In August, the group announced it had €100 mln in exposure to U.S. subprime asset-backed securities, and that it expected to write off €10-12 mln of those assets at most. Uniqua declared yesterday that it will register some €35 mln of write-offs from the first nine months of 2007, and a further €20-30 mln by year-end.

The group posted €280 mln in gross profit in the first three quarters of 2007, a 46.3 percent increase year-on-year.

"The financial result was affected by a rise in interest rates and the financial market crisis. Uniqua did not register a significant drop in the value of its asset-backed securities investment portfolio," indicates a report by the Austrian group.

Uniqua Versicherungen AG registered €194 mln in net income in the first nine months of 2007, compared to €125 mln year-on-year. Subscriber gross premiums registered in the first three quarters of 2007 amount to €3.933 billion, up 3.3 percent from the same period last year.

Uniqua group's main competitor both on the Austrian and local market is Vienna Insurance Group (VIG), which owns five companies on the Romanian market.