TIRANA, May 31 – Two of the country’s biggest and richest entrepreneurs have diversified their investments in the insurance market by acquiring the life insurance segment of the newly privatized INSIG insurer.
Samir Mane, the owner of Balfin Group, one of the country’s biggest companies, operating in the retail trade, construction, mining and tourism sector, has teamed up with Shefqet Kastrati of the Kastrati group, the country’s biggest oil importer and retail trader, to acquire a 90 percent majority stake in INSIG Jeta (Life), part of INSIG insurer, for €3.5 mln, with both new shareholders holding 45 percent stakes each, according to the National Business Center.
The acquisition was made from Eurosig, an Albanian-owned insurer which acquired state-run INSIG insurer for 2.2 billion lek (€15.8 million) in early 2016, increasing the insurer’s market share to 20 percent.
While for Mane, rumored as the country’s first billionaire, the acquisition of a stake in the insurance market, marks a diversification of his businesses, for Kastrati, the owner of Albsig non-life insurer, it extends its market share in the insurance market. Albsig had a 10 percent market share in the non-life insurance in the first four months of this year, according to the Financial Supervisory Authority.
Both Mane and Kastrati were ranked as the two richest Albanians in 2015 by an Albanian millionaires study conducted by Tirana-based Foundation for Economic Freedom.
Albania has 2,005 millionaires who possess between Euro 1 to 5 million known as the “millionaires next door,” 19 middle-millionaires with wealth between 5 to 30 million euros, 6 ultra-high-net-worth individuals with 30 to 99 million euros and one centa millionaire with 100 to 999 million euros, according another study by the Foundation for Economic Freedom.
INSIG, also present in neighbouring Kosovo and Macedonia is the only operator to operate both in the life and non-life segment with a market share of about 5 percent. Its life insurance market share was at about 7.7 percent in the first four months of this year.
In late 2015, the country’s biggest oil importer and distributor, Kastrati, diversified its investments in the car industry by acquiring exclusive rights to trade Mercedes vehicles in Albania after taking over the majority 75 percent stake in Auto Star Albania, the authorized Mercedes dealer in Albania, for 855 million lek (€6 million).
Albania’s life insurance market, dominated by credit life insurance holds only a 7 percent share in insurance premiums.
The insurance market for the first four months of this year has considerably picked up with an annual 20 percent hike.
Albania’s insurance market slowed down in 2016 following a double-digit growth rate in 2015, but paid claims in the compulsory motor insurance-dominated market rose by an annual 17.5 percent, the country’s Financial Supervisory Authority says.
Insurance premiums in the nine companies operating in this market rose by 9.6 percent to 15.5 billion lek (€112 million) in 2016 as the number of insurance policies registered only a modest 2.6 percent hike to 1.12 million. The market is dominated by Austrian companies holding about 55 percent of the market share.
