French Axa sells Romanian subsidiary to local competitor Astra Asigurari

French insurance company AXA has agreed to sell its Romanian subsidiary to local insurance company Astra Asigurări, owned by local businessman Dan Adamescu. The parties agreed not to disclose the terms and conditions of the transaction. It is for the first time after the fall of communism that a Romanian insurance company takes over a foreign one. He sale comes soon after AXA entered the Romanian market, which happened in 2010, when it took over Omniasig Asigurări de Viaţă from Vienna Insurance Group. Axa had invested some EUR 29.3 million in the Romanian subsidiary since entering the market, but the amount does not include the takeover price. Axa had a EUR 7 million business in Romania, where it has 40,000 insurance contracts. The AXA Group has 160,000 employees serving 102 million clients in 57 countries. In 2012, its revenues amounted to EUR 90.1 billion and its earnings to EUR 4.3 billion. The company had EUR 1.1 billion in assets under management end- 2012. The buyer in this transaction, Astra Asigurari, had revenues of some EUR 133 million from premiums in the first half of 2013, up 16 percent on the same period of 2012. The company, which has been active since 1991, is controlled by The Nova Group Investments România – 72 percent of the shares, and Epsilon Estate Provider SRL- 27 percent, plus a group of individuals and companies who control the rest. Both companies are owned by businessman Dan Adamescu, who also owns the Intercontinental Hotel in Bucharest. editor@romania-insider.com