CLAL Insurance, close to seling a 50% package

CLAL Insurance company, which entered the local market at the end of 2006, is close to finalize the sale process of a package of 50% of its operations in Romania, for a price that equals the investment made, to a company whose name remains unknown for the moment, according to the Israeli publication GLOBES.

If the sale of this package of 50% of the operations of CLAL's operations in Romania is going to succeed, then the Israeli group will also extend to other stated in Eastern Europe, according to the same source. The value of the transaction, as well as the buying company, were not revealed yet, but GLOBES informs that the deal will imply the payment of one amount equal to the initial investment of the Israeli when entering the local insurance market, of several EUR million.

The Israeli from CLAL have entered Romania at the end of 2006 and became operational very quickly, by opening a network of 40 units, in almost all of the countries' provinces. Their entering was followed by an aggressive media campaign, based upon the motor insurance products.
The local insurance market, which exceeded last year, EUR 2.15 billion in GWP volume, has passed thru a period with multiple mergers and acquisitions, many companies from the top changing their owner. Besides CLAL, another local insurance company is for sale, at the time being - UNITA, part of the Austrian group VIENNA Insurance.