ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 11, 2004

Ingosstrakh intends to develop Armenia’s insurance market

By Tigran Liloyan

Russia’s Ingosstrakh Insurance Company has acquired 75 percent of the
shares of the Armenian insurance firm Efes, which accounts for about
20 percent of the country’s insurance market.

Ingosstrakh General Director Vyacheslav Shcherbakov stated here on
Thursday, “We expect to promote the development of the insurance
market of Armenia.” He said the decision to appear on the Armenian
market is prompted, to a larger extent, by an active development of
Russo-Armenian economic cooperation. Russian capital investments in
Armenia have amounted to 200 million US dollars, with a number of big
Russian companies operating in this country, Shcherbakov pointed out.

“This is why a further economic development is impossible without a
sizeable insurance component,” Shcherbakov maintains. He is convinced
that the insurance market here, despite its not large volume, has a
considerable potential. The Ingosstrakh intends to take up the
insurance of the property of Armenia’s enterprises that have been
turned over to Russia in repayment of the interstate debt, he said.

The Russian company will also offer an extensive package of services
in Armenia. These are regular products of Ingosstrakh, primarily the
insurance of the property of natural persons and legal entities, air
transportation, and liability car insurance. The latter is not
compulsory in Armenia so far but the Ingosstrakh hopes that a
respective law will also be adopted in Armenia soon.