LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), November 22 (SeeNews) – Slovenian reinsurer Sava Re [LJE:POSR] said on Friday that the consolidated net profit of the Sava Insurance Group rose by 29% year-on-year to 37.7 million euro ($41.7 million) in the first nine months of 2019, accounting for 87.6% of the planned full-year profit.
The group's consolidated gross written premiums rose 9.5% on the year to 471.1 million euro in the January-September period, while its operating revenue increased 8.7% to 427.5 million euro, Sava Re, the ultimate parent company of the Sava Insurance Group, said in a filing to the Ljubljana Stock Exchange.
The growth in gross premiums written was contributed by the Slovenian non-life insurance business, which expanded by 10.9%, the non-Slovenian non-life insurance business, which grew 20.3%, the reinsurance business, which went up by 3.6%, the non-Slovenian life insurance business with 7.4% incerase and Slovenian life insurance with 0.4% growth.
The rise in operating revenues was primarily driven by the non-life segment and partly by acquisitions.
“In addition to achieving significant organic growth, the Sava Insurance Group remains committed to its strategy of acquisitions-based growth,” the group said.
Sava Re has said the group plans to generate a net profit of at least 43 million euro in 2019, up 10% compared to the previous year.
Elsewhere in Southeast Europe, the Sava Insurance Group has operations in Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Croatia.
After Sava acquired Croatian insurers ERGO Osiguranje and ERGO Zivotno Osiguranje, in February this year Sava Re purchased 85% of Sava Infond, so that the members of the Sava Insurance Group now hold 100% of the voting rights in Sava Infond.
In August, a deal was signed to purchase Slovenia-based medical centre Diagnosticni center Bled.
In October, Sava Re issued subordinated bonds worth a total of 75 million euro, with a scheduled maturity of 2039 and an early recall option for 7 November 2029. The capital raised is Tier 2 eligible and Solvency II compliant.
Sava Re's shares traded 1.73% higher at 17.6 euro as of 10.48 a.m. CET on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange.
In May, Sava Re said it decided to change its umbrella brand name Sava Re Group to Sava Insurance Group to test the strength of the brand that best describes the group.
($ = 0.90304 euro)