SOFIA (Bulgaria), May 17 (SeeNews) - Austria's Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) said on Tuesday that its operations in Bulgaria generated a first-quarter pre-tax profit of 12.1 million euro ($12.75 million), up from a pre-tax profit of 6.2 million euro reported for the like period of 2021, buoyed by an annual jump of almost 19% in gross written premiums (GWP).

GWP increased to 68.5 million euro in the first three months of 2022 from 57.6 million euro a year earlier, VIG said in a quarterly financial statement.

The growth in GWP was mostly driven by increases across life, health and Casco insurance segments in Bulgaria. Life regular GWP marked the biggest jump, by 39.6% year on year to 12.8 million euro in the first quarter, whereas life single slid 28.6% to 2.2 million euro.

Health GWP surged 36.5% to 7.9 million euro, closely followed by property with an increase of 30.1% to 18.2 million euro. Casco GWP went up 15.3% to 19.5 million euro, but motor third-party liability (MTPL) GWP dropped 8.8% on the year to 7.9 million euro in the review period.

VIG Bulgaria's combined ratio worsened by 14.9 percentage points to 75.3% in the January-March quarter.

The group is active on the Bulgarian insurance market through Bulstrad non-life insurer, Bulstrad Life and Nova Ins non-life. It also holds a stake in Bulgaria's largest pension fund, Doverie.

($ = 0.9483 euro)