November 22 (SeeNews) - The Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) said on Tuesday its pre-tax profit in Romania rose 16.6% year-on-year to 6.4 million euro ($6.8 million) in the nine months through September due to strong premium growth.
Total gross written premiums of VIG's Romanian units surged by an annual 30.3% to 391.8 million euro in the January-September period due to a strong increase in motor third party liability insurance, Casco and other property business growing as well, the insurance group said in a financial report published on its website.
Premiums from motor third party liability insurance surged 84% to 132.5 189.5 million euro, while Casco premiums rose 16.6% to 81 million euro and other property premiums grew 1.7% to 69.3 million euro.
VIG's premiums from regular life insurance on the Romanian market edged up 0.5% to 32 million euro, while single life insurance fell 32.9% to 17 million euro.
The group's net combined ratio in Romania dropped to 101.6% from 102.2% in the first nine months of 2015.
In Romania VIG is represented by three insurance companies - Omniasig Non-life, Asirom, and BCR Life. In August, it agreed to acquire France-based AXA Group's life and savings insurance operations in Romania.
In 2015, VIG's pre-tax profit in Romania fell 7.1% to 5.6 million euro, while its gross written premiums jumped 26.2% to 428.6 million euro.
($=0.9405 euro)