SOFIA (Bulgaria), March 27 (SeeNews) – Bulgaria's Euroins Insurance Group (EIG) has received regulatory approval to take full control of HDI Zastrahovane, the Bulgarian unit of Germany-based Talanx International, the competition regulator said on Friday.
The regulator's decision was adopted on March 24 and can be appealed before the Supreme Administrative Court within a 14-day period after it was published, the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) said in a statement on its website.
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EIG has asked for approval to acquire the 94% in HDI Zastrahovane it does not yet own, according to the statement.
EIG signed a deal with Talanx International on February 19 to acquire its operations in Bulgaria and Ukraine, Eurohold Bulgaria, the parent company of EIB, said last month. The deal for the two units, part of Eurohold's expansion plans and one aimed at strengthening the group's position in the insurance market in Central and Eastern Europe, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2015.
Eurohold Bulgaria also said at the time that, in 2013, the gross premium income of HDI Zastrahovane amounted to 13 million euro ($14.2 million), while that of its Ukrainian peer was 16 million euro. Cumulative earnings before interest and taxes of the two companies stood at around 1 million euro in 2013.
At end-2013, Euroins took over the operations of Australian insurance company QBE in Bulgaria and Romania and finalised the acquisition of Interamerican Bulgaria. In 2014, the company started operations in Greece.
($=0.9159 euro)
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