KPMG to find buyer for troubled Romanian insurer

Financial consultancy group KPMG has got the mandate to look for a buyer for local insurer Carpatica Asig, which has been under financial recovery procedure for almost two years and needs about EUR 22.5 million worth of fresh capital to meet the solvency criteria required by the local financial markets regulator ASF. According to market sources, Carpatica is negotiating through KPMG with an investment fund from Switzerland, with a foreign insurer and with a local company that’s not in the insurance business, reports Profit.ro. The ASF apparently has tried to get Chinese group Fossum to buy Carpatica Asig, after Fossum made an offer for Astra Asigurari, but the Chinese considered the company two small. Carpatica Asig, which is controlled by Romanian businessman Ilie Carabulea, was the fifth biggest general insurance company in Romania, in 2014, with gross premiums of some EUR 125 million and a market share of 8.6%. KPMG was also the special administrator for Astra Asigurari, which went bankrupt earlier this year, after the financial recovery procedure failed. editor@romania-insider.com