OREANDA-NEWS. September 21, 2009. In the first half of 2009, based upon the performance of ROSNO’s Southern Directorate, the aggregate insurance premium amounted to 246 mln roubles. The major contribution to the premium collected by ROSNO in the Southern Federal Okrug has been made by the Directorate’s Krasnodar branch (38.4%). According to the financials for the first six months, ROSNO’s Southern Directorate earned 300% more operating profit than in the same period last year. The results achieved in the first 6 months of 2009 fully conform to ROSNO Group’s portfolio optimization and profitability improvement strategy, reported the press-centre of ROSNO.

In the first six months of 2009, ROSNO’s Southern Directorate increased gross premium collected by 14.6% vs. the same period of the previous year. At the same time, the aggregate premium collected in the Russian market grew by just 4.2%, and the insurance market of the Southern Federal Okrug shrank by 20.7% in the first half of 2009 (according to FSSN).

ROSNO’s major growth drivers in the Southern Federal Okrug have been property insurance (+53.2%) and liability insurance (+20.3%). The performance results of ROSNO’s Southern Directorate notably differ from the average Russian market trends: in the 2nd quarter of the running year, premium collected from property insurance continued falling (-11.5%), while the liability insurance segment was expanding, albeit not so considerably (+9.9%).

On the other hand, the share of the obligatory motor third party liability insurance segment in the company’s portfolio demonstrated only minor growth: premium collected from the motor third party liability insurance increased by just 3.8%. This results from the work ROSNO has accomplished to contain growth of the share of OMTPL segment in its portfolio, since this segment is peculiar for its high level of losses incurred by insurers.

The highest dynamics of growth in insurance premium collected was demonstrated by the Krasnodar branch (+69.5%), Volgograd branch (+54.6%) and ROSNO’s branch in Makhachkala (+26.4%).

In the first half of 2009, the aggregate volume of insurance compensations paid by ROSNO’s Southern Directorate exceeded 103 mln roubles. This is 10.6% less than in the first two quarters of 2008. This results from ROSNO’s persistent work on re-segmentation of its portfolio.

The positive performance results of the first six months of 2009 to a large extent can be attributed to the fact that ROSNO’s Southern Directorate won in a tough competition for a number of tenders and attracted large corporate clients in various types of insurance in the company’s top-priority market segments.

According to the head of ROSNO’s Southern Directorate Mr. Andrey Ulanov, in the times of economic turmoil, consumers began paying more attention to choosing the insurer, preferring to deal with large and stable market players. Today, clients take into account not only tariffs, but also insurance terms, promptness of compensation payments, and overall service quality.

"Already before the crisis, ROSNO developed the strategy „One + 3“, concentrated on profitable growth and improvement in the company’s competitive power and value proposition for its shareholders and clients. By consistently following the formulated strategy, ROSNO mitigates negative impact of the crisis, and it preserves and further improves its high customer service quality level. All these measures will positively affect the financial performance", commented Mr. Andrey Ulanov.