Agras business down one third, to 4 million euros

Agras Vienna Insurance Group underwrote gross premiums worth 13.18 million RON (around 4 million euros) in 2007, down 39% on the previous year, while gross profit went up 11 times and reached 289.841 RON, according to a company announcement. Last year, claims settled by the company totalled 11.32 million RON, compared with 9.01 million RON in 2006. Agras, which specialises in agricultural insurance, is controlled by Vienna Insurance Group, which holds 92.31% of its share capital. Omniasig accounts for 55.0013% of Unita shares. The three companies are indirectly controlled by the Austrian-based Vienna Insurance Group (VIG), which was previously called Wiener Staedtische. VIG also holds stakes in Omniasig Asigurari de Viata (Omniasig Life Insurance) and Asirom on the Romanian market, with the Austrian group to soon take over control of BCR Asigurari and BCR Asigurari de Viata, after Erste (owner of the two) announced at the end of March that it would give up several insurance companies in Central and Eastern Europe, with a total value of 1.44 billion euros.