Historical territorial expansion - The strongest Romanian insurance company opens its Branch in Hungary today

ASTRA Asigurari, the most important Romanian capital and shareholding company on the specialized market received its authorization to open a Branch in Hungary on October 12th, 2010.

The ASTRA Asigurari branch in Hungary will be headquartered in Budapest and, for starters, it will subscribe to the business segments where the company holds important positions on the Romanian market, respectively: property, Casco and vehicle liability insurance. The new branch will operate in accordance with the insurance legislation in force at this time on the Hungarian territory. The financial statements, the transfer of liability, solvability, logistic support, as well as the implementation of electronic issuance and rating programmes will be supported by ASTRA Asigurari Romania.

The decision to expand to the Hungarian market is part of the strategic development plan ASTRA Asigurari has set for itself for 2010. The legal measures were taken to support and implement the sales network development process. The final decision on the approval of the territorial expansion project belonged to the competent forums supervising the insurance - re-insurance activities in Romania and Hungary - CSA, the Insurance Supervisory Commission and the HSFA - Hungarian Financial Supervisory Authority (authority regulating the banking activity and the capital market activity in Hungary).

"We are witnessing historical times in the life of our company, as well as an interesting step for the insurance market in Romania. As a result of the study performed on the afferent market in Hungary, we have noticed that the latter has similarities with the Romanian market. This is why we have decided to expand to the West and to implement Romanian know how, doubled by the experience we have in the damage file instrumentation policy, on the Hungarian market. This experience will be very important in adopting the company’s further development strategy”, declared Radu Mustatea, President of the ASTRA Asigurari Directorate.

The sales of the ASTRA Asigurari insurance policies in Hungary will be carried out both by the classic sales methods, and by network brokers, natural person agencies and online brokers, a successful distribution channel that is widely spread in Hungary.

The ASTRA Asigurari branch in Hungary will be coordinated by Mr. Bela Torok. He is a graduate of the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Cluj and of an MBA programme of the Polytechnic Institute in Budapest. Starting with 1991, Bela Torok has held important management positions as a Branch Manager and an Area Manager within Generali Providencia Hungary. In 2010, he joined the ASTRA Asigurari team. Bela Torok is married, with a child.

The Hungarian market has certain advantages, including the prices and the high degree of penetration. The degree of penetration on the property segment is 80% in Hungary, compared to only 20% in Romania. The frequency of damages on the auto segment is lower than that in Romania. The market of Hungarian Insurers is represented by 31 insurance companies. The most important players on the Hungarian insurance market are: Allianz and Generali Providencia, followed by Groupama, Aegon and ING.

About ASTRA Asigurari

The ASTRA Asigurari company is the Romanian insurance market leader and, during the first 6 months of 2010, it registered a net accounting profit of RON 11,363,128, with an 83% increase compared to S1/2009. The volume of the total subscribed gross premiums net of direct cancellations and re-insurance establishments (life and non-life) registered by the company during the first semester of 2010 amounts to RON 581,191,318, of which RON 574,903,620 is the volume of the gross premiums subscribed to general insurance, registering a 41% increase compared to the 1st semester of 2009. ASTRA Asigurari is a PAID founding member and it also subscribes the DIP mandatory home insurance policy and the PAD COMPLET policy on www.astraonline.ro.

ASTRA Asigurari has recently released the company website - www.astrasig.ro, with a more dynamic, friendlier image, providing more information of interest to the public. The company is also active in the social media, as it can be accessed on www.facebook.com/ASTRA.Asigurari and www.astra-asigurari.blogspot.com.

Press Office, Mihaela.constantin@astrasig.ro