OREANDA-NEWS. May 29, 2009. OJSC IC ROSNO has held a strategic dialogue in Nizhny Novgorod — the annual event focused on strategic planning of the company’s regional development. The company has summed up its performance results in Privolzh’e Federal Okrug in 2008 and Q1 2009 and determined its development priorities for the years 2009 to 2011, reported the press-centre of ROSNO.

Among the event’s participants were ROSNO’s board members: Mr. Dmitry Popov, First Deputy CEO/COO of ROSNO, and Mr. Maxim Chernin, Deputy CEO of ROSNO and CEO of Allianz ROSNO Life.

Mr. Vladimir Parshakov, head of the Privolzhskaya Directorate, introduced the participants of the strategic dialogue to the development guidelines of the Directorate’s branches for the years 2009 to 2011, providing the data collected from analyzing the region’s insurance market, covering ROSNO’s position and its development prospects in the market of Privolzh’e Federal Okrug.

Overall, the insurance market of Privolzhsky region grew by 20% in 2008, from 63.9 to 76.7 bn roubles. The most active growth was demonstrated in the voluntary motor insurance segment (+37%). According to experts, the average insurance business growth in Privolzh’e Federal Okrug for the period of 2008 to 2011 will near 4%, taking into account the approximate 12% decrease in aggregate premium collected by insurance companies in 2009 vs. the year 2008. In this situation, MOD insurance can turn out to be the most negatively affected business line.

In 2008, ROSNO’s operations in Privolzh’e were conducted in line with the company’s strategy. All efforts were focused on sanation of the insurance portfolio: the company persistently restricted the share of unprofitable insurance products and stimulated the development of the top-priority business lines. The aggregate insurance premium collected by ROSNO’s Privolzh’e Directorate in 2008 equalled 1,583 million roubles, whereof almost 53% of the collected premium pertained to property insurance and another 22% belonged to non-life personal insurance.

In 2008, the volumes of premium collected in the personal property insurance segment increased more than by one-third (34%), and the Q1 2009 growth in this segment amounted to 53%. In addition, liability insurance premium has increased as well (by 7.5% in Q1 2009). Overall, the aggregate premium collected by ROSNO’s Privolzh’e Directorate in Q1 2009 equalled 375.2 million roubles.

The major contributions to the insurance premium collected by ROSNO’s Privolzh’e Directorate were made by the branches in Nizhny Novgorod (28%), Orenburg (19%) and Saratov (17%), and the most intensive growth in 2008 was shown in Orenburg (40% premium increase), Mordovia (by 29%), Kirov (by 27%), and Udmurtia (by 19%).

The company’s determined policy of further decrease in losses has retarded growth of certain motor insurance segments in its portfolio. In 2008, the share of OMTPL insurance in the portfolio of ROSNO’s Privolzh’e Directorate was reduced to 23% (versus 25% in 2007), with MOD insurance being cut by 5% to 32%. On the other hand, the share of property insurance (except transport insurance) in the Directorate’s portfolio grew by 6%. Thus, ROSNO continues sanation of its insurance portfolio, thereby making the company more stable and reliable and forming its crisis immunity.

The Directorate’s major strategic goals and objectives for the next three years are as follows: becoming one of the three leaders among the insurance companies of Privolzh’e Region, focused on developing property insurance, agricultural insurance and voluntary medical insurance, and interaction with the self-regulated construction organizations. Key operations will be focused on the active development of sales channels, particularly external sales networks, optimization of business processes, and cost reduction.

Summing up the results achieved by the Directorate in the reporting period, Mr. Vladimir Parshakov noted: "For the Privolzh’e Directorate, the year 2008 was of special importance and, in many respects, it was revealing. This is the first year when the Directorate operated in its new structure and format after the large-scale restructuring process underwent by the company. Despite the economic crisis, our previously complete structural changes have enabled us to enter the crisis well-prepared and continue the path of profitable growth. We plan to continue focusing our attention on the regional insurance market specifics and offer the Privolzh’e residents the products particularly interesting for them. In addition, our product line will be complemented with „niche“ products intended for certain market segments. Our major objective is to attain leadership in Privolzh’e".

Mr. Dmitry Popov, First Deputy CEO/COO of ROSNO, approved the Directorate’s performance results and the presented development strategy. "Realizing that the volume of insurance services rendered in the regions is growing by the year, we view the immense potential of Privolzh’e Federal Okrug in a positive light. The heterogeneous nature of the Privolzh’e insurance market necessitates a differentiated approach to winning the market positions. We’ve got good development prospects not only in the large and insufficiently penetrated markets (such as Mordovia, Chuvashia, Marij El and Kazan, but also in those regions where the markets are already close to saturation, and where we have traditionally had strong positions — in Nizhny Novgorod and Saratov. In terms of segmentation by business lines, we focus on active penetration into the emerging promising segments, such as agricultural insurance. In building ROSNO’s regional development for the next three years, the company’s management continues pursuing its strategy „One + 3“, concentrated on profitable growth and improvement in the company’s competitive power and value proposition. By implementing (on the federal and regional level) the projects for modification and simplification of business processes, we are seeking to achieve maximum business efficiency and optimize costs while preserving customer focus and excellent service quality. The formulated strategy enables ROSNO to overcome negative effects of the economic crisis and remain the stable, profitable and most customer-focused Russian insurance company both in Moscow and in the strategically important regions".