May 24 (SeeNews) - Slovenian reinsurer Sava Re said on Thursday its consolidated net profit dropped to 4.6 million euro ($5.4 million) in the first quarter of 2018, from 9.2 million euro a year earlier.
The group's consolidated gross written premiums rose 4.4% on the year to 166.97 million euro, while its operating expenses increased 17.4% to 40.4 million euro, Sava Re said in a filing to the Ljubljana Stock Exchange.
The rise in premiums was contributed by non-life insurance in Slovenia (5.8% growth), non-life insurance abroad (20.5% growth), life insurance abroad (19.3% growth) and the reinsurance business (1.4% growth).
In line with expectations, there was a decline in gross life insurance premiums written of 8.9% as the result of a substantial amount of policy maturities. Thus in the first quarter, the group wrote 32.1% of the target premium income for the full year 2018.
Elsewhere in Southeast Europe, the Sava Re Group has operations in Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Croatia.
The Sava Re Group continued implementing its growth strategy in the first quarter of 2018. On January 31, the Slovenian-based assistance service provider TBS Team 24 was integrated in the Sava Re Group, followed by the integration of the Macedonian-based pension fund NLB Nov penziski fond and the Serbian-based insurer Energoprojekt Garant on March 31.
In April, Zavarovalnica Sava, d.d., as the acquirer, and Ergo Austria International AG and Ergo Versicherung Aktiengesellschaft, as the sellers, signed a contract for 100% of the shares in the companies ERGO osiguranje, d.d. and Ergo zivotno osiguranje, d.d.
($=0.852689 euro)