Romania wins 330 mln euro case over Astra Asigurari bankruptcy

The ICSID ruled that Romania did not violate its obligations under an investment agreement with the Netherlands and does not have to pay a compensation of about 330 million euro ($321.3 million) requested by Nova in 2019.

In 2015, The Bucharest Court approved a request submitted by Romania's financial supervision authority, ASF, for the bankruptcy Astra Asigurari. Earlier that year, ASF had revoked Astra's operating licence and declared it insolvent after its financial recovery plan had failed to achieve its main objective of increasing its capital by 425 million lei ($91.2 million/85.4 million euro).

In the year preceding its bankruptcy, Astra was Romania's third largest insurer in terms of gross written premiums with a market share of 9.6%. Astra Asigurari had operated Romania since 1991 and was controlled by Adamescu through majority stakeholder Nova.

Following the bankruptcy, Nova sued Romania, claiming that ASF's actions and the prosecution of Adamescu violated Romania's obligations under the investment agreement with the Netherlands.

Romania successfully argued that the Adamescu family was responsible for Astra Asigurari's failure due to illegal activities, and that the government's actions were justified and necessary to protect the public interest.

(1 euro = 4.9771 lei)