January 27 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian life insurance companies increased their combined net profit to 33.7 million levs ($19 million/17.2 million euro) in the January-November period of last year from 27.6 million levs in the same period of 2018, according to data from the Financial Supervision Commission.
The rise in profit was supported by an 11.4% increase in gross written premiums (GWP) to 452.3 million levs in the first eleven months of 2019, financial regulator data, published on Friday, showed.
The rise in GWP was mostly driven by sickness insurance premiums, which grew sharply to 98.4 million levs in the January-November period of 2019 from 65.5 million levs in the comparable period of 2018.
The four biggest life insurers had a combined market share of 85.9% in terms of GWP in the review period.
Bulstrad Life Vienna Insurance Group was the biggest player on the life insurance market with gross premiums of 138.8 million levs in the first eleven months of the year, equal to a market share of 30.7%.
DZI Life Insurance and Allianz Bulgaria Life followed with market shares of 22.3% and 18.2%, respectively. The other company with a double-digit market share was UNIQA Life, which recorded a market share of 14.7%.
The total assets of life insurers in the country grew to 1.91 billion levs at the end of November 2019 from 1.69 billion levs a year earlier.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)