Bulstrad Life, the insurance company with a market share of just more than seven per cent in Bulgaria, expects to continue the trend of a healthy growth in profits set last year.

At a news conference on March 19 at the Grand Hotel Sofia, executive director Svetla Nestorova said that the company expected that its premium income for 2006 would add up to 13.5 million leva.

This is 41 per cent higher than in 2005. Nestorova said that the expected profit for 2006 was 11.2 million leva, an increase of 81 per cent over the 2005 figure.

She said that in 2006, Bulstrad Life paid out insurance benefits to a total of 3.98 million leva.

Nestorova said that, through expanding in Bulgaria’s retail insurance sector, the company expected to achieve similar growth this year, with a projected possible 35 to 40 per cent increase in net profit in 2007.

The total value of the life insurance market in Bulgaria last year was 189.8 million leva, an increase compared with 2006 of more than 25 per cent.

In spite of the increasing number of foreign players that have expressed their intentions to enter the market in Bulgaria, Nestorova said that she expected the company to maintain a market share similar to its current 7.1 per cent.

According to reported Financial Supervision Commission data, about 60 foreign insurers intend entering the Bulgarian market. The country’s accession to the European Union has facilitated such developments.

Nestorova said that she expected that the company would increase its retail life insurance products to a 75 per cent share of its portfolio in 2007, up from 62 per cent this year.

Bulstrad Life is owned mostly by Bulstrad, while Germany’s Hannover Re has a six per cent share. In turn, Bulstrad is owned by Austria’s Wiener Staedtische.

Bulstrad Life, currently the sixth largest player on the market, was incorporated in 1994 and offers a range of wealth accumulation and protection products and services to individuals and corporate customers. Its portfolio of products and services include individual life insurance, individual annuity and saving products, group life and health insurance, group pensions and retirement products, asset management services, individual health insurance and disability insurance.

The company distributes its products through direct sales agents, independent general agents and brokers, financial intermediaries and banks.