November 18 (SeeNews) - Austria's Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) said on Thursday that it turned to a net profit of 16.6 million euro ($18.8 million) from operations in Bulgaria in the first nine months of 2021, compared to a net loss of 46.2 million euro in the same period of last year.
VIG's result in Bulgaria was impacted by a goodwill impairment of 59.8 million euro, the insurer said in an interim financial report.
The impairment led to a 32.6% year-on-year decline in total expenses in the first nine months of 2021, to 112.5 million euro.
VIG's gross written premiums in Bulgaria added 7% year-on-year to 165.8 million euro in the review period, mostly due to a 44.3% jump in single life insurance premiums, to 8.4 million euro. The gross written premiums of VIG's biggest segment in the country - Casco insurance, grew 10.2% to 50.9 million euro.
VIG's net earned premiums on the Bulgarian market added 7.3% year-on-year to 119.2 million euro in the review period.
The combined ratio worsened by 2.1 percentage points (pp) to 90.7%, dragged down by a 2.3pp decline in the cost ratio, the interim financial report also showed.
The group is active on the Bulgarian insurance market through Bulstrad non-life insurer and Bulstrad Life. It also holds a stake in Doverie, the largest Bulgarian pension assurance company.
($ = 0.8813 euro)
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