Triglav eyes Croatia Osiguranje and Novi Sad's DDOR

Matjaz Rakovec, CEO of the insurance company Zavarovalnica Triglav, told Friday's issue of the business daily Finance that the insurer was looking to buy Croatian insurance company Croatia Osiguranje.

Rakovec stressed Zavarovalnica Triglav wanted to increase its presence on the "extremely interesting" Croatian market.

- Considering we've established (subsidiary) Triglav INT and have a shareholding agreement with the IFC, our financial structure enables us to participate in the takeover.

Serbia's third-largest insurer DDOR has also been up for sale for quite some time.

- By purchasing both we could consolidate the insurance market in countries covered by the Triglav Group. We would become stronger and our market share would reach about 35% in the Adria Region - he said.

But to achieve this, Zavarovalnica Triglav must increase its capital.

Croatia Osiguranje collected about EUR 400m in premiums, and its price would hover at around 70% to 80% percent of gross premiums, perhaps even lower. This means about EUR 300m would be required for Croatia Osiguranje. Together with DDOR the amount would total about EUR 400m, for which the current capital structure of Zavarovalnica Triglav is insufficient.