Grawe Records a Halt in the Trend of Insurance Policy Buybacks

Grawe Croatia has recorded positive trends in most indicators related to property and life insurance over the last six months, and the results for the second half of the year show a significant recovery compared to the results at the beginning of the year.

In addition, in the second half of 2010, the trend of increasing requests from policyholders for policy termination was halted, and compared to the average number of such requests in the first half of the year, by December 1st this figure decreased by as much as 25 percent, što su odlične vijesti i za druge osiguravatelje. The average monthly decline in earned premiums in Grawe insurance in the first half of the year compared to 2009 was 7.35 percent, while for the period from June to November, a decline in total premiums of 4.37 percent was recorded, što je značajno poboljšanje. Although the total earned premium is somewhat worse than the previous year, Grawe is satisfied with the results achieved and the beginning of market recovery. Life insurance, which forms the basis of their business and over 60 percent of the portfolio, has begun to show positive trends.

The company’s results for the second quarter show an increase of over 20 percent compared to the average monthly sales of life insurance for that period, while the results for the last four months (from July to October) show an even greater recovery and an increase of as much as 25 percent compared to the same period last year. – Given the overall economic situation, we are satisfied with the results achieved in the life insurance segment – stated Igor Pureta, CEO of Grawe Croatia, adding that the somewhat poorer results compared to the market average in the first half of the year were not so much influenced by the decline in sales of new policies, but rather by the fact that a large number of policyholders’ life insurance policies expired this year. Namely, Grawe Croatia was the first insurance company to introduce life insurance to the Croatian market in 1993, and they are now paying out insured amounts for a large number of matured policies, što nam značajno umanjuje ostvarenu premiju.

– In addition, as a consequence of the economic situation in the past and this year, we have also encountered a larger number of requests for buybacks and capitalization of policies. The amounts we pay for maturities and buybacks of policies are difficult to track with the sales of new policies in such a year. However, we are satisfied because the situation this year has begun to move in a positive direction, and a significant recovery in life insurance is yet to come – concluded Pureta. Furthermore, Grawe highlighted another piece of data showing that the market has started to move. Their sales of life insurance policies through bank insurance have increased by as much as 47.5 percent from the beginning of the year to December 1st. In the property insurance for individuals, Grawe is also satisfied with the results, as they have recorded an increase in the average premium for household and residential property insurance of over 20 percent in the last six months. In the ten months of 2010, Grawe Croatia achieved just under 195 million kuna in life insurance premiums, a little over 126 million kuna in non-life insurance, while the total earned premium of the company for that period was 320,708,321 kuna. (T.B.)