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EBRD invests in UNIQA Hungary
Increased competition to benefit clients
The EBRD is investing up to €11.2 million to acquire a 15 per cent stake in
UNIQA Biztosító Rt., an insurance company organised as a joint stock company
under the laws of the Republic of Hungary, through subscription for newly
issued shares. UNIQA Biztosító Rt. is an indirect wholly- owned subsidiary of
Austria’s UNIQA Versicherungen AG, which has a regional expansion strategy
with a special attention to Central and Eastern Europe.
The equity investment comes under a €70 million framework agreement between
the Bank and UNIQA that can be used across all of the EBRD’s 27 countries of
operations. So far the Bank has invested in UNIQA subsidiaries in Croatia, the
Czech Republic and Poland.
In Hungary, UNIQA presently ranks sixth and is growing strongly. The company’s
goal is to become a fully-fledged financial service provider offering
innovative new products, with small and medium-sized enterprises with the
retail segment as its core business.
Jonathan Woollett, EBRD Director for Non-Bank Financial Institutions, said the
Bank’s investment will help UNIQA Biztosító to further develop its insurance
activities with a national focus to meet the challenges of the fast developing
Hungarian insurance sector. This should ultimately increase competition on the
market and benefit the insurance companies’ clients. With its knowledge of
local markets the EBRD is complementing UNIQA’s expertise, he added.
Konstantin Klien, UNIQA Director General, said the framework agreement and
EBRD’s investment in our subsidiaries in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Poland
and now in Hungary is an impressive recognition of UNIQA's international
expertise and endorses its focus on the Central European core market. The
cooperation with the EBRD increases our capability to further expand in the
region, he added.
The Hungarian insurance market has been expanding rapidly over the past ten
years, but still lags behind the EU average. In 2003 the total market amounted
to more than €2 billion. UNIQA is the leading Austrian insurance company and
ranks among the top 35 insurers operating in the EU.
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