Niculae, Asirom: I won't sell to the Austrians at the same price

Businessman Ioan Niculae, who recently sold 30% in insurance firm Asirom to Austria’s Vienna Insurance group, maintains he does not intend to sell the rest of the shares within the next 2 or 3 years. After the deal, worth 47m euros and conducted at the end of June, Niculae now holds a 20% stake in the firm. Vienna Insurance also announced that it wanted to buy this stake, and then make an offer to Asirom’s minority shareholders. “They want to buy, but I don’t want to sell at the moment, maybe in the next 2 or 3 years. I don’t want to sell at the same price,” Niculae told ZF. However, he did not specify the price he would sell at. In H1, Asirom posted a net income worth 2.1m RON (0.63m euros), down 78% from the level reached in the same period last year. In the first six months, Asirom registered a slight increase in gross underwritten premiums, to 337.1m RON (101.2m euros). At the end of H1, Asirom ranked fourth on the general insurance market and fifth on the life insurance market. Besides Ioan Niculae, other shareholders in the company include Rafinaria Astra (8.34%), AVAS (6.38%) and 3 offshore firms: Waterwe Ventures Limited (9.55%), Tarkul Estated Ltd (5.39%) and Damrosch Trading Limited (9.48%) with unknown shareholders.