August 4 (SeeNews) - France-based global insurer AXA Group said on Thursday it has agreed to sell its life and savings insurance operations in Romania to Austria's Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) in a third attempt to exit the Romanian market.
Under the agreement, VIG would acquire 100% of AXA Life Insurance SA through its BCR Life and Omniasig entities, AXA Group said in a bourse filing, adding that the terms and conditions of the transaction will not be disclosed.
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The deal is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of regulatory approvals.
In a separate statement, VIG said that the acquisition will strengthen its leading position in the Romanian insurance market and support its growth prospects.
“The Romanian life insurance market grew 11 percent in 2015. Our existing VIG Group company BCR Life, the second-largest player in the Romanian life insurance market with a market share of 14.4 percent, also recorded significant growth in the previous year,” CEO Elisabeth Stadler said in the statement.
In Romania, VIG is already represented by three insurance companies - Omniasig Non-life, Asirom, and BCR Life. Its combined pre-tax profit in the country fell 7.1% to 5.6 million ($6.2 million) euro in 2015, while gross written premiums jumped 26.2% to 428.6 million euro on the back of a 21.4% increase to 346.4 million euro in property and casualty and a 51.2% growth to 82.2 million euro in life insurance premiums.
AXA Life generated more than 4.5 million euro gross premium income in 2015, primarily from traditional life insurance business, according to VIG.
AXA's first attempt to sell AXA Life Insurance Romania to local peer Astra Asigurari, announced in November 2013, failed in September 2014.
In December 2014, AXA entered into an agreement with Romania's Certinvest and SIF Transilvania [BSE:SIF3] to sell its life and savings insurance operations in Romania and exit the market. However, that deal also failed in July 2015.
Last month, AXA agreed to sell its life and non-life insurance operations in Serbia to VIG.
($=0.8983 euro)