SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), November 12 (SeeNews) – The Bosnian unit of Austrian insurer UNIQA said on Monday its net profit for the first half of 2007 rose 9.7% on the year to some 554,000 marka ($416,000/284,000 euro).
UNIQA Osiguranje increased by 51.65% to 12.76 million marka its total premium income in the first six months of the year, it said in a statement.
Non-life insurance premiums rose by 33.05% to 9.05 million marka. Premiums from property insurance saw the sharpest increase, by 84.23% to 3.31 million marka. Automobile insurance premium income grew by 19.67% to 1.97 million marka.
UNIQA Osiguranje’s life insurance premiums rose 36.8% to 3.71 million marka, the company said.
In terms of market position in the Muslim-Croat Federation where UNIQA Osiguranje is based, it ranked sixth by total premiums collected from January through June with an 8.71% market share, and third in the life insurance segment with a 17.06% share, it said.
The Federation is one of the two autonomous parts war-divided Bosnia forming two thirds of the country’s population and economy. The other is the Serb Republic. The two regions have separate insurance markets.
UNIQA Osiguranje’s parent company said earlier on Monday the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) had acquired a 20% stake in its Bosnian unit.
UNIQA acquired 94% of the Bosnian insurer from Austrian group Raiffeisen for an undisclosed price in March 2005.
The first-ranked insurer in the Federation at the end of June was Sarajevo Osiguranje with a 20.11% premiums share, followed by Bosna Sunce (13.33%), Croatia Osiguranje (11.26%), Triglav BH (10.56%) and Euroherc (9.28%).
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bosnian marka)