Albanian Insurer Interalbanian bought by ASPIS PRONIA

TIRANA, Feb.7 – Interalbanian marketing manager Rezana Ruli announced on Wednesday that 51 percent of the company was sold to the Greek insurer Aspis Pronia for 2.2 million euro ($2.9 million). She said the sale was successful given that the priority of the transaction was to find a strategic partner, which she judged to be the case with ASPIS. Aspis Pronia’s Cypriot subsidiary MFS Holdings finalized the action on behalf of the parent company. Aspis Pronia’s parent company, Aspis Group, plans to expand in the insurance and banking markets in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. This latest move should be seen in this context, Aspis has said in a statement. The same strategy involves potential market entrances by the Greek group in Kosova, Macedonia and Montenegro. Interalbanian, operating since 2004, offers only non-life insurance services. It runs nine branches and four offices countrywide. Interalbanian, competes with nine other insurers in the local market, including one from Kosovo. The company had a 7.2 percent share in the non-life insurance market in Albania and an 11 percent market share in the voluntary insurance at the end of last November, according to a report of the country’s insurance authority. Albania’s insurers had a combined gross premium income of 3.7 billion leks ($38.4 million/29.6 million euro) in the non-life insurance segment and 1.3 billion leks in the voluntary insurance market in the 11 months through November last year.