LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), March 5 (SeeNews) – Slovenian reinsurer Sava Re [LJE:POSR] said on Friday that the consolidated net profit of the Sava Insurance Group rose by 12.3% to 56.4 million euro ($67.3 million) in 2020, and exceeded the target set for the year.
“The increase was driven by good results in the life and non-life insurance segments, partly offset by the challenging claims experience in international reinsurance business,” Sava Re, the ultimate parent company of the Sava Insurance Group, said in a filing with the Ljubljana Stock Exchange.
The group's consolidated gross written premiums rose 13.6% to 679.7 million euro in 2020, while its operating revenue increased 15.5% to 674.9 million euro.
The growth in gross premiums written was backed by a 53% growth in Slovenian life business following the acquisition of life insurer Vita, a 8% expansion of Slovenian non-life insurance business, a 18% increase in reinsurance business, a 9% growth of non-Slovenian life insurance business, whereas non-Slovenian non-life premiums shrank by 6%.
The net expense ratio improved by 2.1 percentage points, which was primarily driven by the inclusion of Vita, but also by growth in most other operating segments and measures to contain costs assumed by the group to ease the negative financial impact of the coronavirus crisis.
In late May, Sava Re completed the purchase of Vita from its owners - Slovenian lender NLB and Belgium-based peer KBC, which controlled it 50/50.
Elsewhere in Southeast Europe, apart from Slovenia and Croatia, the Sava Insurance Group has operations in Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.
Sava Reshares traded 3.54% higher at 23.40 euro by 10:33 CET on Friday on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange.
($ = 0.838525 euro)