OREANDA-NEWS  On 04 March was announced, that SOGAZ Insurance Group buys one of the North-Western Federal District’s leading insurers, Sheksna Insurance Group, Chairman of the Management Board of SOGAZ Insurance Group Vadim Yanov told journalists on Monday.

On February 13, 2009, SOGAZ filed to the Federal Antimonopoly Service an application for the purchase of 100% shares of OJSC IC Sheksna from the company’s sole shareholder, CJSC Severgrupp (former Severstal-Grupp). The transaction is planned to be closed by the end of March this year. Alongside with IC Sheksna, SOGAZ Group will comprise its subsidiaries, OJSC MIC Sheksna-М and CJSC Sheksna-Life.

According to Vadim Yanov, the acquisition of Sheksna Group, whose main customer is OJSC Severstal, fully agrees with SOGAZ’s development strategy for the period till 2012. “SOGAZ is a universal industrial insurer, (and) it is the corporate sector, which remains our top priority. The purchase of Sheksna means that one of the largest industrial holding companies will be among our customers. Also, included in SOGAZ Group will be an insurance company with unique experience of servicing metallurgical businesses, thus allowing us to give a major boost to insurance operations in this important sector of Russia’s economy”, stressed Vadim Yanov.

He also noted the significance of the Sheksna Group purchase from the point of view of SOGAZ’s regional expansion, first of all in the North-Western Federal District, where the Group had not been sufficiently represented just until recently. “Sheksna Group has a developed network covering almost all major cities of the North-West, (and) thus SOGAZ will strengthen considerably its positions in this region”, reported Vadim Yanov.

The regional network of SOGAZ Insurance Group in the North-Western Federal District presently comprises a total of nine affiliates and 28 branches. The premiums collected by SOGAZ Group in this region in 2008 amounted to RUR 8.42 bln net of compulsory medical insurance premiums equal to RUR 3.39 bln. The amount of premiums collected by Sheksna Group reached RUR 5.85 bln net of compulsory medical insurance premiums amounting to RUR 2.71 bln. According to the Federal Service for Insurance Supervision, SOGAZ and Sheksna Groups rank the 3rd and 6th respectively in the insurance market of the North-Western Federal District (net of reinsurance premiums).