Groupama, third on insurance market in 5 months

In just five months, the French firm bought three insurers for almost half a billion euros, with Groupama’s name, almost unknown until late last year, now being frequently mentioned.
Groupama’s big hit was the takeover of Asiban, ranking third domestically, which pushed it onto the third position among insurers.
In just five months, Groupama managed to achieve what other French groups did not in 18 years. It not only managed to enter the market, but also gained a top position, thus becoming the direct rival of Vienna Insurance (Austria) and Allianz (Germany) and the first French player on the domestic insurance market.
However, the price it paid for this performance is very high: 450m euros, close to the value of acquisitions Vienna Insurance operated in Romania.
Though little known in Romania so far, Groupama is an important financial group in the region, with operations both in Europe and Asia. In 2007, it posted turnover worth above 12.1bn euros, 6% higher year-on-year, while net income advanced at a much speedier rate, of 32%, to 793m euros.
The group has over 30,000 employees and it is active both in the fields of insurance and banking, as well as in other financial domains.
The group’s first move domestically was the complete acquisition of BT Asigurari from Banca Transilvania. The move could not but amaze the entire market as no foreign investor had paid such a high price (100m euros) until then. Through this acquisition, Groupama came to account for 4% of a market that had reached 2.15bn euros last year.
The next move was a regional one, namely the purchase of OTP Garancia, the insurance unit of Hungary’s OTP group.
Several months later, namely last week, the group announced its most important acquisition domestically, that of Asiban. With 350m euros, the price it will pay for the insurer, according to some market sources, Groupama has drawn the winning ticket. Perhaps not in terms of profit, as Asiban’s income has been quite small in recent years, but certainly in terms of the size of the business.
Asiban ranks third on the market, having stirred the interest of some major financial groups that submitted binding bids to take over the company. However, the winner was Groupama, which was known right from the beginning to have the intention to bid aggressively to rapidly gain a top position on the market with the biggest growth potential in the region.
Asiban’s takeover brought Groupama another 8.6% of the insurance market, with its share going up to almost 13%. The unknown name thus came to fight for customers with Allianz, owning the market leader, Allianz-Tiriac, and with Vienna Insurance, controlling 7 insurers.
In less than half a year, the French group came to call the shots on the Romanian insurance market.

Groupama
In just 5 months, the French firm bought 3 insurers for almost half a billion euros
Groupama’s big hit was the takeover of Asiban, ranking third domestically, which pushed it onto the third position in insurers’ top
In 2007 posted turnover worth above 12.1bn euros, 6% higher year-on-year, while net income advanced at a much speedier rate, of 32%, to 793m euros
Has over 30,000 employees and it operates in the fields of insurance and banking, as well as in other financial domains