Goodbye Asiban and BT Asigurari, hello Groupama!

The biggest restructuring in the history of the insurance market – the merger between Asiban and BT Asigurari, with turnover worth 250 million euros last year, held by French-based Groupama – has been recently completed, with a new player, Groupama Asigurari (Groupama Insurance) entering straight at No. 3. For the last month or so, all insurance policies sold in Asiban and BT Asigurari agencies have been issued under the Groupama Asigurari name, with the company’s official launch planned for late September. After spending almost half a billion euros for the acquisition of Asiban and of BT Asigurari, the French have abandoned these brands, although they had an over ten-year history behind them. Instead, they are using their own name, which is as yet very little known to clients in Romania. A promotional campaign costing a few million euros will begin in at the end of September, with the entire cost of the merger being put at 20 million euros. At present only a few offices of the several hundreds that form the Asiban and the BT Asigurari network have undergone a rebranding process and are displaying the Groupama brand name.