November 26 (SeeNews) - Austria's Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) said on Thursday that it turned to a net loss of 46.2 million euro ($55.1 million) from operations in Bulgaria in the first nine months of 2020, from a net profit of 11.5 million euro in the same period of 2019.
VIG's result in Bulgaria was impacted by a 59.8 million euro goodwill impairment related to the coronavirus pandemic, the insurer said in an interim financial statement.
The impairment led to a 63.7% year-on-year jump in total expenses, to 166.8 million euro, in the first three quarters of 2020.
Gross written premiums in Bulgaria fell by 10.2% to 155 million euro, mostly due to a 17.9 million euro drop in health insurance premiums. GWP from VIG's biggest segment in the country - casco insurance, edged up 0.5% to 46.1 million euro.
Net earned premiums rose 6.2% to 111.1 million euro, as VIG's combined ratio improved by 2.6 percentage points to 92.8%.
The group is active on the Bulgarian insurance market through Bulstrad non-life insurer, Bulstrad Life and Nova Ins non-life. It also holds a stake in Doverie, the largest Bulgarian pension assurance company.
($ = 0.8387 euro)
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