Vienna Insurance Group completes sale of Unita to Austrian insurer Uniqa

Vienna Insurance Group (VIG), Austria's biggest insurance company, finalized the sale of the majority stock in the insurer Unita VIG to the Austrian group Uniqa, after receiving the green light from the insurance competition watchdog, the company announced.

Vienna Insurance Group, which owns 99.99 percent of Unita's shares, said at the end of May it had reached an agreement with Uniqa regarding the take over of Unita. Uniqa could pay some 200-250 million euros for Unita.

The European Commission (EC) endorsed the transaction in the first semester of the year.

Unita, the sixth insurer on the local market, posted GPW of 270.5 million lei in the first six months and had a 6.12 percent market share. The company recorded GPW of 142 million euros last year.

Uniqa announced at the end of October it would increase its share capital by 10 percent to 131.67 billion euros to offset the effects the takeover of Romanian insurer Unita will have on its shares.

Uniqa starts to strengthen position in Eastern and Southeastern Europe helped by Unita. The company has been present in Romania starting with 2005.

VIG currently operates on the Romanian market with Omniasig SA VIG, Omniasig Asigurari de Viata SA VIG and Asirom SA VIG.

Vienna Insurance took over the insurance activities of Erste Group Bank AG in Romania and acquired around 88.5 percent of the life insurer BCR Asigurari de Viata and of the general insurer BCR Asigurari. The transactions pend official approvals.

NewsIn