August 27 (SeeNews) - Austria's Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) said on Tuesday that it has posted an after tax profit of 59,000 euro ($65,561) from operations in Romania in the first half of 2019, compared to a 44.6 million euro loss in the same period of last year, according to preliminary data.
VIG Romania recorded a pre-tax profit of 2.4 million euro in the period under review, compared to a 43.1 million euro loss in the year-ago period, the company said in a first-half financial statement.
Total gross written premiums of VIG's Romanian units fell by an annual 13.9% to 234.9 million euro in January-June, due to a planned reduction of motor third party liability (MTPL) business, the company said.
VIG's premiums from MTPL insurance in Romania fell by 51.9% on the year to 46.8 million euro in the first half, while casco premiums rose 14.6% to 77.7 million euro and other property premiums edged up by 0.5% to 51.3 million euro.
Premiums from regular life insurance on the Romanian market rose 6.1% year-on-year to 24.9 million euro, while single life insurance rose by 6.7% to 29.8 million euro. Health insurance premiums fell by 14.8% to 4.4 million euro in the six months through June.
VIG's expenses from operations in Romania fell by 24.9% year-on-year in the first six months to 186.8 million euro.
The group's net combined ratio in Romania rose to 102.6% in the first half of 2019 compared to 98.6% a year earlier, impacted by the substantially reduced MTPL business.
VIG swung to a pre-tax loss of 73.9 million euro from operations in Romania last year, from a 6.2 million euro profit in 2017.
In Romania, VIG is represented by three insurance companies - Omniasig Non-life, Asirom and BCR Life. In June 2018, BCR Life and AXA Life, previously owned by VIG, merged.
($=0.8999 euro)