Wednesday, July 4 2012 18:15
Merger of INGO Armenia and Cascade Insurance is over
ArmInfo. The merger of INGO Armenia and Cascade Insurance is over, CEO of INGO Armenia Levon Altunyan and his newly appointed deputy Garnik Tonoyan (formerly CEO of Cascade Insurance) said during a press-conference on Wednesday.
They specified that the insurance portfolio of Cascade Insurance has been transferred to INGO Armenia. As a result, Cascade Insurance has ceased to exist.
Altunyan said that the two companies merged in order to enlarge their financial resources and infrastructure and to improve the quality of their services.
"Now we will have a company with a total portfolio of 8.7bln AMD, over 200,000 customers, as many as 65 branches, almost 320 employees and as much as 9.2bln AMD to be collected in premiums by the end of this year," Altunyan said.
Tonoyan said that Cascade Insurance's experience, quality and reputation will not be lost. "All this will be used by the new company," he said.
He noted that the owner of 75% of INGO Armenia, Ingosstrakh, generally refrains from acquiring portfolio of other companies as this implies acquisition of other's experience and customs. "But in this case we have minimized all risks," Tonoyan said.
According to ArmInfo's Ranking of Insurance Companies of Armenia, in Q1 2012 the assets of INGO Armenia made up 8bln AMD, insurance premiums 2.4bln AMD. During the same period the assets of Cascade Insurance made up 3.5bln AMD, premiums 973mln AMD.
INGO Armenia was set up in 1997 and has licenses for 15 types of non life insurance. Cascade Insurance was established in Oct 2005. 65% of its shares are owned by Cascade Capital Holdings, 35% by EBRD. As a result of the merger EBRD's stake has been bought by Ingosstrakh.