‘UNIRECO’ IC Intends To Become The First Retail Insurance Company In

‘UNIRECO’ IC INTENDS TO BECOME THE FIRST RETAIL INSURANCE COMPANY IN ARMENIA

ArmInfo
2008-11-12 15:37:00

ArmInfo. ‘UNIRECO’ Insurance Company entered the insurance market of
Armenia with a capital of 570 mln drams. This is the second Russian
insurance company having entered the insurance market of Armenia in
2008. As ‘UNIRECO’ IC said, the Company has been founded by Sergey
Sarkisov, owner of the Russian insurance company ‘RECO-Guarantee’,
Gagik Zakaryan, co-owner of "Unibank" (Armenia) and "Uniastrum Bank"
(Russia). ‘UNIRECO’ intends to become the first retail insurance
company in Armenia with focus on the service of natural persons.

According to the source, by a license, received from the Central Bank
of Armenia on November 10, ‘UNIRECO’ IC will be engaged not in life
insurance, in particular, accident insurance, but fire and natural
disasters insurance, property and other damages, land transport and
freight traffic.

The Company also said that started 2009, "UNIRECO" schedules to extend
the list of service it renders, offering its clients assistance
insurance (of those leaving abroad), insurance of responsibility
from using land motor vehicles and general responsibility, as well as
insurance of the professional responsibility of valuators and realtors,
transport and shipping companies. High rates of construction in the
republic open wide opportunities for implementation of programmes of
complex insurance of building and mounting risks. Medical insurance
will also become an important direction of activity for ‘UNIRECO’
in future.

‘UNIRECO’ will actively develop the partner programmes, attracting
financial-banking organizations, industrial, building and transport
enterprises to cooperation, as well as medical establishments and
tourist companies. To maximum enhance availability of its services
over the whole territory of Armenia, the Company intends to assure
its presence in he regions of the country. The further regional
expansion of UNIRECO proposes building of a wide branch network in
all big cities of Yerevan.

Reliability and stability of the activity of ‘UNIRECO’ will be
assured by high-quality reinsurance programmes and cooperation with
foreign insurance companies. The main target markets for ‘UNIRECO’
are representative of the European, including the English and Russian
reinsurance markets. To note, ‘RECO-Guarantee’ enters the ‘RECO’ group
and its assets include control packages of the following companies:
‘RECO-Guarantee’ Ltd, Ltd SPC "Unity Re", CJSC "AMC Finance".

To note, with appearance of a new participant, the number of insurance
companies of Armenia reached 12, 5 of which are affiliated with the
local banks. By October 1, 2008, the total authorized capital of
Armenia’s insurance companies made up 6.6 bln drams (according to RA
CB standard, the minimum size of the authorized capital for IC has
been fixed at 500 mln drams). Over 9 months, the authorized capital
of insurance companies grew by 41,6%. As of this date, the insurance
companies gathered premiums to almost 6 bln drams (24% growth over
9 months), 3 bln drams of which has been transferred to reinsurance
(almost 46% growth over 9 months). Compensations to almost 940 mln
drams have been paid as of this date (45,5% growth over 9 months). Upon
the results of 9 months, 2008, the total profit of insurance companies
made up about 550 bln drams having increased by 11,2% over 9 months.