Omniasig buys Asirag

Omniasig, one of Romania’s top three insurers, has bought the main stake in Asirag, a Pitesti-based insurance company with sales worth some 6 million euros. Asirag mainly deals in auto insurance.

Omniasig, with sales worth more than 60 million euros, has thus closed two deals in one month. Back in March, it paid 1.3 million euros for a 40% stake in AGI Romania, whose sales revolve around 10 million euros.

According to Omniasig officials, the Asirag transaction exceeds one million euros.

“I can only tell you that it was worth more than one million euros. We bought because we felt that it was an opportunity to increase our market share. This is a serious company. We think it was the right acquisition,” said Dan Stoian, marketing manager with Omniasig.

Omniasig bought 64% in Asirag from a group of natural persons and local companies that had founded the company: Subansamble SA (an auto subassemblies company that held 18% in Asirag), Secona (a constructions company with 17%), Alprom (furniture factory, 12%). Asirag has capital worth 31.2 billion ROL (800,000 euros).

The rest of shares are owned by Dacia Renault (20%) and the National Dacia Retail Centre (17%), a company also controlled by Dacia Renault. Asirag posted 19bn ROL (500,000 euros) in profit last year, after having logged 18 billion ROL (600,000 euros) in 2002.

Following this acquisition, Omniasig has come to account for 11.8% of the general insurance market (up from 10.8%). sorin.pislaru@zf.ro