Uniqa, the Austrian group that became the majority shareholder of Astra-Uniqa, maintains that it is interested in buying up more stock in the insurance company, depending on its performance. Last month, the Austrians acquired another 23% stake in Astra from businessman Dan Adamescu; therefore coming to hold 50% plus one share in the company, after having purchased a 27% stake for 10 million euros in the summer of 2005.
"The deal through which we bought 23% is just one step. Whether or when we buy further stock depends on both the performance of the company and the market, however we'll always conduct our activities in agreement with Nova Trade," stated Norbert Heller, press relations officer at the Austrian group.
Nova Trade, the company through which Dan Adamescu is an Astra stakeholder, now owns 47% in the insurance company.
After this deal was completed (the value of which has not yet been released) Uniqa did not announce any changes to the company's management. Instead, it has highlighted several areas of Astra's business than must be developed.
To begin with, the Austrians will focus on boosting gross underwritten premiums for life insurance. In the first quarter, Astra-Uniqa registered life insurance revenues worth around 0.1 million euros (more than 0.4 million RON), down by more than a third against the same period last year.
At the same time, Uniqa plans to develop the bancassurance partnership between Astra and Raiffeisen - a bank that includes the Austrians as shareholders.
Astra-Uniqa ended the first quarter of this year with a turnover worth 35.4 million euros (119.7 million RON), down 4% in euros on last year. The value of claims settled by Astra increased by 60 percent, to 11.6 million euros (39 million RON).
Simultaneously, the company saw its losses triple, to 3.4 million euros (more than 11.3 million RON). The company also went into the red on the segments of both general insurance and life insurance.
Astra is listed on the Basic Tier of the RASDAQ market on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. At present, the company has a market capitalisation of around 190 million euros (609 million RON).
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