$16m in Asiban revenues

Asiban Bucharest logged insurance premium-related revenues of 590.9bn ROL (some $18 million) in the first half, up more than 2.8 times compared with the same time last year, when it had made 208.1bn ROL revenues. “First-half results have exceeded our expectations,” Dumitru Ceraceanu, Asiban general manager said. The gross premiums subscribed amounted to 755.9bn ROL by late June 2003, up from the 328.4bn ROL posted in the first half of 2002. Gross profit went up, too, from 38.9bn ROL to 55.8bn ROL. Ceraceanu said the best-selling products were the insurance policies for credits and warranties – 138.7bn ROL (23.5%), followed by the auto insurance policies – 136.4bn ROL (23.1%), life insurance – 132.3bn ROL (22.4%) and fire and disaster insurance – 90.8bn ROL (18.4%). “The large share of the credit and warranty insurance in the total Asiban revenues was due to the increase in consumer lending,” the company representative explained. Mediafaxx