May 22 (SeeNews) - Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) said on Wednesday that it has posted a profit of 400,000 euro ($450,000) from its operations in Romania in the first quarter of 2019, down 88.5% on the year, according to preliminary data.
VIG's pre-tax profit fell by an annual 51.1% to 2 million euro in the period under reviews, the company said in a conference call presentation of its first-quarter preliminary unaudited results.
Total gross written premiums of VIG's Romanian units fell by an annual 20.9% to 115.9 million euro in January-March, due to a planned reduction of motor third party liability premiums (MTPL) business, the company said.
VIG's premiums from MTPL insurance in Romania fell by 56.4% on the year to 23.9 million euro in the first quarter, while casco premiums rose 13.4% to 36.4 million euro and other property premiums fell by 45.3% to 15.8 million euro.
Premiums from regular life insurance on the Romanian market rose 4.9% year-on-year to 12.5 million euro, while single life insurance rose by 55.5% to 25.9 million euro. Health insurance premiums fell by 39.1% to 1.3 million euro in the three months through March.
The group's net combined ratio in Romania rose to 101.6% in the first quarter of 2019 compared to 97.7% a year earlier, impacted by the substantially reduced MTPL business.
VIG swung to a pre-tax loss of 73.9 million euro from its operations in Romania last year, from a 6.2 million euro profit in 2017.
In Romania, VIG is represented by three insurance companies - Omniasig Non-life, Asirom and BCR Life. In June 2018, BCR life and AXA Life, previously owned by VIG, merged.
($=0.8971 euro)