In the first half of 2018, the Bulgarian insurance market maintained a growth rhythm close to that established during the previous year, reporting a 7.9% y-o-y increase in GWP, to EUR 627.5 million.

With a premium volume decreasing y-o-y by 5%, the life insurance segment lost about 2.5 percentage points of its market weight, currently accounting for 18.3% of total GWP. But it should be mentioned that the Unit-Linked insurance products class saw an impressive double-digit growth rate, increasing their share in the market portfolio by about 1 pp, to 3.56%. However, this growth was not enough to offset the decline recorded from the traditional products segment (life insurance and annuities class).

On the non-life side, GWP went up by 11.3%, to EUR 512.7 million, the unchallenged driver of this growth being the motor insurance segment, which recorded an overall increase of 16.8%, to EUR 377 million. In fact, the MTPL insurance line provided for most of the growth (over 70% of the extra EUR 54.3 million added to the previous year's GWP volume). Moreover, motor insurance lines are the only business lines with a relevant presence in the market portfolio which saw a positive trend, increasing their aggregate market weight to about 60% of the market GWP. Property insurance saw a negative trend, with GWP declining by 4.2%, to EUR 72.46 million, despite the country's significant exposure to Nat Cat risks.

As compared with 1H2017, the non-life market ranking in GWP terms saw some changes: LEV INS, a company belonging to the Bulgarian Lev Corporation AD, has become the market leader, accounting for about 13.2% of the market non-life GWP, while the former non-life leader, BULSTRAD - VIG currently ranks second (12.17% of market share). Also, the companies holding the third and fourth ranks have switched places; at the end of June 2018, DZI General Insurance ranked third (10.77% market share) while ARMEEC ranked fourth (10.63%). ALLIANZ Bulgaria has lost its fifth place position to EUROINS, while GENERALI Insurance and BUL INS have switched places 7 and 9.

On the life insurance side, the market ranking remained unchanged, with BULSTRAD Life-VIG leading the market (23.3% market share), followed by ALLIANZ Bulgaria (20.24%) and UNIQA Life (18%).

Access www.xprimm.com and download the 1H2018 Bulgarian insurance market statistics (in EUR and BGN).