EBRD is eyeing the Yugoria insurance company

13.09.2010 — News

YUGRA

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development may become a co-owner of the Yugoria state insurance company. The government of Yugra, which owns 100% of the company, is talking to the bankers about issuing additional shares.

Vera Dyudina, the deputy governor of the region, told RusBusinessNews that Yugoria is not a core asset and that the government is constantly asking the company's directors to raise its share capital so that the company can be privatized, which would be advantageous for the Yugra government's budget. Offers have been made before to obtain shares or even an entire block of shares in Yugoria, but the price didn't match the insurance company's market value.

According to Vladimir Volkov, a member of the board of directors of the Yugoria insurance group, foreign auditors valued the company at 7 billion rubles in 2009. A new estimate scheduled for the end of September 2010 will probably be significantly higher than the first.

Between January and June of this year, the Yugoria insurance group took in 3.318 billion rubles in premiums, an increase of 5% over the same period in 2009. The company paid out an estimated 2.036 billion rubles for all claims. 80% of Yugoria's fees and payments went to 54 of the constituent political entities of the Russian Federation where its branches operate, and the other 20% went to its "home" region. According to the results from 2009, among Russian insurance companies, the Yugoria insurance group was in 14th place in terms of assets.