Asiban''s profit plunges

The profit of the insurance company Asiban saw a significant drop in the first quarter, with the rising number of claims settled on the car segment and the termination of high-value insurance contracts being among the reasons for this drop. The insurer logged a gross profit worth 65,000 RON (nearly 20,000 euros) in the first three months, against 7.1 million RON (1.9 million euros) in the same period of last year. Asiban was one of the most profitable insurance companies in Romania in 2005. “The number of claims settled in the first quarter of this year is double that seen in the first quarter of 2005. It is a trend that is specific to the market as a whole. On the car insurance market, we have some two thousand claims per month,” stated Dumitru Ceraceanu, president and general manager of Asiban. He says the number of claims on the car insurance segment could reach 25,000, 10,000 more than last year. ZF