Grawe, a life insurance firm part of Austrian group that shares the same name, is likely to complete the acquisition of a top 10 insurance firm in September or October, Peter Kasyk, Grawe general manager, told ZF.
At the start of July, Kasyk told ZF in an interview that he was negotiating the takeover of a company selling both life and general insurance, and was in talks with the shareholders of two companies.
"In general, the takeover targets on the market are Asiban and BT Asigurari. However, I cannot say whether we'll buy one of these companies because this is an ongoing process," stated the general manager of Grawe.
He believes Asiban is worth around 100m euros and BT Asigurari around 70m euros.
In 2006, Asiban was the fourth largest insurer in Romania and is currently controlled by four banks: BCR, BRD-SocGen, Banca Transilvania and CEC, each with a 25% stake. This year, BCR, BRD-SocGen and Banca Transilvania announced they wanted to sell their stakes, with CEC considering taking them over, according to some recent statements made by the chairman of the institution, Radu Ghetea.
Rothschild European investment bank is the sales consultant for the three banks, with the legal side of the deal being handled by the law firm Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii.
In 2006, Asiban underwrote gross premiums worth around 124m euros and generated a net income valued at 0.5m-euro. According to market sources, the shareholders of BT Asigurari have also put the firm up for sale, which a due diligence process being conducted at the moment. BT ranked tenth last year on the insurance market and registered a 60m-euro turnover, with losses of 2m euros.
In case it takes over Asiban or BT Asigurari, Grawe would seal one of the biggest deals on the market.
At the same time, Grawe is set to sell mandatory private pensions (pillar II) for BT Aegon, a
