August 18 (SeeNews) - Austria's Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) said on Thursday that it booked a pre-tax profit of 20.9 million euro ($21.2 million) from operations in Bulgaria in the first six months of 2022, up from a pre-tax profit of 13.9 million euro a year earlier.
VIG's strong overall half-year result was pinpointed by a particularly clear improvement in its combined ratio in Bulgaria, along with Albania and Kosovo, VIG said in its half-year financial statement.
In Bulgaria, the insurer's net combined ratio, a measure of profitability expressed by the ratio of total costs divided by total revenue, stood at 78% in the first half compared to 87% in the first six months of 2021. Overall, Austria, Poland and the wider Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) segments, in particular also Albania and Kosovo, contributed the most to VIG's total combined ration improvement of 0.9 percentage points (pp) to 94%.
VIG's gross written premiums (GWP) in Bulgaria rose 16.4% year-on-year to 132.9 million euro in the first half, mostly due to a 36% jump in health insurance over the review period. Single and regular life insurance premiums also recorded significant increases, by an annual 32% and 30.1% to 7.5 million euro and 22 million euro, respectively. The gross written premiums of VIG's biggest segment in the country - Casco insurance, grew 18% to 40.1 million euro.
VIG's net earned premiums in its extended CEE segment, which includes Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Moldova, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia as well as Ukraine, climbed 14% on the year to 1.22 billion euro in the January-June period. Net profit in the whole segment increased 3.2% to 70.3 million euro, affected by certain impairment charges as well as measures to hedge financial exposure through Russian investments.
"We still experience very challenging times, marked primarily by the war in Ukraine, high inflation and the pandemic, which is still making its effects felt. Although these influences – which also have an impact on the insurance industry – are clouding the economic outlook, VIG Group continues to show very strong resilience, which is once again manifested in improved key figures," CEO Elisabeth Stadler commented. She added that VIG's half-year results point to a positive operating performance in 2022 as a whole.
VIG is active on the Bulgarian insurance market through Bulstrad Life and non-insurers Bulstrad and Nova Ins. It also holds an equity stake in Doverie, the largest Bulgarian pension assurance company.
($ = 0.9842 euro)
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