Extended CEE
The Extended CEE reportable segment includes the countries of Albania incl. Kosovo, Baltic states, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Moldova, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine, which generated 27.2% of Group premiums in 2021.
Albania including Kosovo
VIG Insurance Group operates in the Albanian insurance market with Sigma Interalbanian and Intersig. With a market share of 21.1% it ranked second in the first nine months of 2021. Sigma Interalbanian is also represented by a branch in Kosovo, where it held seventh place in the market with a market share of 9.0% in the 1st to 3rd quarters of 2021.
Baltic states
VIG insurance companies are represented in all three Baltic states. Compensa Life has its headquarters in Estonia and is also represented by branches in Latvia and Lithuania. BTA Baltic operates in Latvia and has branches in Estonia and Lithuania. After merging in 2020, the non-life companies Compensa Non-Life and Seesam operated in Lithuania as a single company, Compensa Non-Life. It maintains branches in Latvia and Estonia.
Their market share of 25.1% made the VIG insurance companies the market leader in the Baltic states in the 1st to 3rd quarters of 2021. They also hold first place in the non-life sector and second place for life insurance.
Bosnia-Herzegovina
VIG Insurance Group is represented by Wiener Osiguranje, which has its headquarters in Banja Luka in the Serbian Republika Srpska in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and by Vienna Osiguranje, which is headquartered in Sarajevo. The market share was 8.3% based on data for the 1st to 3rd quarters of 2021, which puts the VIG insurance companies in fifth place in the market.
Bulgaria
The three insurance companies Bulstrad Life, Bulstrad Non-Life and Nova are represented in the Bulgarian insurance market. Together they had a market share of 13.3% in the 1st to 3rd quarters of 2021. That makes the VIG insurance companies the leading insurance group in Bulgaria. They hold third place in both the non-life and life sectors. The PAC Doverie pension fund also belongs to VIG Insurance Group.
Croatia
The VIG insurance company Wiener Osiguranje operates in Croatia. Its market share of 10.5% in the 1st to 3rd quarters of 2021 put it in fourth place in the Croatian insurance market.
Moldova
The VIG insurance company Donaris operates in Moldova. It had a market share of 12.1% in the first nine months of 2021, putting it in fifth place in the market. It also holds fourth place in the non-life sector.
North Macedonia
The VIG insurance companies Makedonija Osiguruvanje, Winner Non-Life and Winner Life together held a market share of 18.4% in the 1st to 3rd quarters of 2021. That makes the VIG companies the leading insurance group in North Macedonia.
Romania
Three VIG insurance companies, the non-life insurer Omniasig, composite insurer Asirom and life insurer BCR Life, operate in the Romanian insurance market. Their market share of 20.7% makes the VIG insurance companies the market leader in Romania. They hold the second place for both life insurance and non-life insurance.
In November 2020, VIG Insurance Group signed a share purchase agreement with the Dutch company Aegon N.V. to acquire its companies in Hungary, Poland, Romania and Turkey. The acquisition will allow VIG Insurance Group to significantly expand its potential in the pension fund business in Romania. The transaction is subject to the approvals required under supervisory law. Approval under competition law has already been provided.
Serbia
The VIG insurance company Wiener Städtische Osiguranje operates in Serbia. It held fourth place in the market with a market share of 10.8% in the 1st to 3rd quarters of 2021. It is in fifth place in the non-life sector and second place in the life sector.
Slovakia
Two VIG insurance companies, Kooperativa and Komunálna, are represented in the Slovakian insurance market. Their market share of 28.7% put them in first place in Slovakia in the 1st to 3rd quarters of 2021. They hold second place for non-life insurance and first place for life insurance.
Ukraine
Following the merger of Globus and UIG, the VIG non-life insurance companies Kniazha and UIG and life insurance company Kniazha Life were operating in Ukraine. The VIG insurance companies held third place in the overall market with a market share of 7.0% in the 1st to 3rd quarters of 2021. They are in second place in the non-life sector and sixth place in the life sector.
Hungary
The VIG Insurance Group operates with the insurance company Union Biztosító in Hungary. It had a market share of 8.1% in 2020, which put it in sixth place in the market. It was in sixth place for non-life insurance in 2020 and fourth place for life insurance.
In November 2020, VIG Insurance Group signed a share purchase agreement with the Dutch company Aegon N.V. to acquire its companies in Hungary, Poland, Romania and Turkey. The acquisition will make VIG Insurance Group the market leader in Hungary. The transaction is subject to the approvals required under supervisory law. Approval under competition law has already been provided.
The cooperation agreement signed with the Hungarian state-owned holding company Corvinus Nemzetközi Befektetési Zrt. (“Corvinus”) on 21 February 2022 provides for a non-controlling minority interest of 45% in the Hungarian VIG companies. Closing of the transaction is subject to the approvals required under supervisory and competition law and closing of the transaction with Aegon.
Financial performance indicators in the Extended CEE reportable segment
Premiums by line of business
Values for 2020 in parenthesis
Premium development
The VIG insurance companies in the Extended CEE segment wrote EUR 2,886.7 million in premiums in 2021, representing a year-on-year increase of 9.3% (2020: EUR 2,640.5 million)
The increase is mainly the result of the good performance in the motor business lines in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine. The life business lines in the Baltic states, Hungary and Slovakia and the other property and casualty business line in the Baltic states, Croatia and Hungary also showed a very positive development. Net earned premiums were EUR 2,200.7 million in 2021 (2020: EUR 2,054.1 million), an increase of 7.1% compared to the previous year.
Result before taxes
Due to an improved combined ratio and the absence of the goodwill impairment in Bulgaria and Croatia of EUR 104.8 million in the previous year, the result before taxes for the Extended CEE segment rose to EUR 188.6 million in 2021 (2020: EUR 31.2 million).
Combined ratio
The combined ratio of 92.3% in the Extended CEE segment in 2021 represented a significant improvement to the previous year’s level due to positive claims development and the reallocation of technical reserves (2020: 94.5%).