In the first ten months of 2011, UNIQA achieved excellent growth of 20.7% in Bulgaria, continuing its success story in the country. The entire Bulgarian insurance market managed to grow by only 0.6% in the same period. Together, UNIQA Insurance plc and UNIQA Life Insurance plc improved the premium volume by around EUR 7,4 million (around BGN 14.5 million) to more than EUR 43 million (over BGN 84 million) compared to the same period last year and thus secured 7th place.

UNIQA Life Insurance plc achieved disproportionately high growth of more than 32% in the life insurance segment. This growth in premiums puts the company well ahead of the regional market growth of +1.3%, enabling it to overtake two competitors compared to the same period last year. UNIQA has thus secured itself 3rd place in the market, with a premium volume of EUR 11.6 million (BGN 22.6 million).

UNIQA Insurance plc also achieved excellent growth of around 17% in the non-life insurance segment, despite sluggish development of the market (+0.5%). This enabled UNIQA to also overtake a competitor in the non-life segment to reach 7th place, with premium volume amounting to EUR 31.6 million (BGN 61.7 million).

UNIQA has also managed to significantly grow its market share in all areas: in the life insurance segment by 2.7 percentage points to almost 11.5% and in the non-life segment by 0.8 percentage points to 5.7%.

Nikolai Genchev, CEO of UNIQA Insurance plc in Bulgaria, commented on the excellent development: “We are very satisfied with our above-average growth in all segments. As one of the top insurance companies, our more than 100 sales offices means we are very close to our customers - and this proximity and the associated levels of service strengthen customer confidence. Not least for this reason we have increased the number of policies issued since October 2010 by 41.5% to over 303,800. Of these, no fewer than 234,600 policies are in the property and casualty insurance segment, corresponding to an increase of 52.5%.”

Wolfgang Kindl, CEO of UNIQA International AG, an independent holding that manages over 40 international companies in the UNIQA Group, says, “The positive development is proof that we are taking the right approach with our long-term strategy of sustainable growth, even in difficult market circumstances, and that UNIQA is well positioned. The quality of our products and services has enabled us to continuously expand our market position in Bulgaria and develop the trust of many new customers.”