[ad_1]
economy
Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) buys the Central and Eastern European business of Dutch insurer Aegon. The purchase price amounts to 830 million euros, the closing of the transaction is expected in the second half of 2021.
Aegon’s insurance business in Hungary, Poland, Romania and Turkey is acquired. The publicly traded company announced this in a broadcast Sunday morning. VIG is taking over the life and non-life insurance companies, as well as pension funds, asset management companies and Aegon services in these countries. The purchase is subject to the necessary regulatory and competition approvals.
Number one in Hungary
“With the acquisition of these companies, VIG is expanding its leading position in the Central and Eastern European market and becoming the number 1 in the insurance market in Hungary,” the broadcast said. Furthermore, VIG is expanding its area of activity in this region in the pension fund business and will also be active in the life business in Turkey for the first time.
The volume of premiums of the insurance companies of the four countries amounted to around 600 million euros in 2019, with a net result of around 50 million euros. From today’s perspective, VIG assumes that the closing regulatory solvency ratio will be within the reported comfort zone of 170 to 230 percent.
Significantly lower profit
VIG reported its nine-month result on Thursday: It had made significantly lower gains in the first three quarters due to the coronavirus crisis. The main reasons for this were a declining financial result and the write-off of goodwill for Bulgaria, Croatia and Georgia that had already taken place in the first half of the year. As announced in mid-November, earnings before taxes fell 29.2 percent to 266.3 million euros. The expected decline in earnings for the full year was also confirmed.
