Allianz-Ţiriac Asigurări turnover fell to 971 million lei

Allianz-Ţiriac Asigurări, the biggest insurer in the Romanian market, saw gross underwritten premium income of 971 million lei in the first nine months of this year, 6% below the level of the same period in 2008, according to preliminary results presented by the group on Monday.
The company said that 93% of this income came from general insurance business, a segment where gross underwritten premiums totalled 905 million lei, 46 million lei less than in the first nine months of 2008.
The 5% drop in general insurance business was particularly generated by the decrease in the sales of Casco policies for cars purchased in leasing, given that new car sales fell this year.
Also, the level of policy renewal decreased, due to the correlation of the insurance premiums with the customers' risk profile, which meant an increase in the cost of policies for the customers with high damage history, the company mentions.
"The loss of income caused by the process of 'cleaning' the CASCO portfolio was an assumed one, as it had positive impact on the profitability of this insurance class," said the general manager of the company, Cristian Constantinescu, quoted in the release.
The gross underwritten premiums on the Casco segment totalled 547 million lei in the first nine months, down 33 million lei against the same period of 2008, representing 60% of the general insurance portfolio, while the RCA activity brought 166 million lei, 12% more.
Regarding earnings, the group announced a gross nine-month profit of 18 million lei in the general insurance business, while the life insurance segment generated a gross profit of 8 million lei, up 25%.
"The operational loss registered in the  RCA insurance class after nine months of activity significantly reduced the profitability of the general insurance portfolio," Constantinescu said, mentioning that the high damage in the RCA segment eroded the overall result of general insurance.
In the RCA segment, the gross rate of damage in the first nine months reached the highest level ever recorded by Allianz-Ţiriac Asigurări, about 100%. The company motivates this evolution by the increase in costs of parts and labour for repairs in car service facilities, the increase in the frequency of reporting damages and the significant growth in the share of compensations for personal injuries and moral damages.