The ruling delivered by the Supreme Court of Justice on June 7 this year declared Nova Trade company winner of the privatisation tender for Astra Insurance Company. The fourth leading insurer in Romania, Astra was put up for sale by the Romanian state in October last year, but the lawsuits following this tender practically blocked the designation of a winner.
The lawsuit won by the irrevocable and final decision of the Supreme Court of Justice by Nova Trade was filed in order to declare Nova Trade winner of the bid and force the State Ownership Fund, currently known as the Privatisation Authority (APAPS), to sign the sale-purchase contract.
“We wrote a letter to APAPS requesting that this contract be put into effect. We still have not got any answer from them, but we are waiting for the contract to be closed, as Privatisation minister Ovidiu Musetescu said he was expecting the court’s ruling to make a decision about Astra,” sources in the management of Nova Trade told Ziarul Financiar.
The company to have come out first among the bidders for Astra was an Italian-capital one, Ceptura, registered in a depressed area, which proposed a thirty-year investment plan, not accepted by the State Ownership Fund. Nova Trade came third, in terms of score, after Administrator Int, a company held by businessman Dinu Patriciu.
Administrator Int. backed away right after the tender, SOF refused signing with Ceptura, so that Nova Trade went and argued in court that it should be declared winner.
Nova Trade group of companies, dealing in constructions through Megaconstruct, trade through Unirea shopping centre and real-estate (Modern and City Business Center, Connex’s headquarters) at the end of 2000 made more than 2000bn lei in turnover (over $90 million).
The main shareholder of the group is businessman Dan Adamescu, while the rest of the capital is German and Swiss-held.
Astra Insurance Company last year collected 480bn lei in premiums, so that its market share dropped to 8.8% in 2000, as compared to 11.7% in 1999.
This decline brought Astra on the fourth place among insurers on the Romanian market, having been outrun by Omniasig and Allianz-?iriac for the first time after 1990, two companies which now prevent it from getting close to the company on the top spot, that is Asirom.
Last year, non-life insurance accounted for most of Astra’s premiums, as it reached 268bn lei, Auto Liability Insurance exclusive, as this accounts for the second-largest share in Astra’s premiums, namely more than 215bn lei.