Eurohold marks another successful year after strong fourth quarter

Eurohold Bulgaria AD, the largest publicly listed company in Bulgaria and a leading energy and financial group in Southeast Europe, reported a strong performance in the last quarter of 2022, sending another successful year into history.  

Last year, the holding registered a nearly 77% growth in revenues compared to the previous year to over BGN 6.3 billion (EUR 3.2 billion) and a roughly 52% increase in EBITDA to approx. BGN 286 million (EUR 146 million), according to the holding's annual consolidated report. Net profit grew by 8.8% on the year to BGN 68.3 million (EUR 34.9 million).

The energy business, which operates under Electrohold brand, made the largest contribution to the results. It accumulated more than half of the total revenues and significantly improved the profitability of the holding. This is the first annual report which fully consolidates the results of the companies that Eurohold acquired from the Czech group CEZ in 2021.

Eurohold's insurance business, operating through Euroins Insurance Group AD (EIG), continued to see steady growth driven by the successful activity of almost all insurance divisions of the group. Gross written premium of EIG rose by 24% year-on-year to approx. BGN 1.7 billion (EUR 854 million).

Euroins Romania, the largest subsidiary of EIG, posted profit before taxes of BGN 62.2 million (EUR 31.8 million) for the twelve months ended December 31, 2022. In the past months, the group’s management took key measures that guarantee even more financial stability of the Romanian unit. Euroins Romania signed a new reinsurance agreement with EIG Re EAD, part of EIG. This contract covers the full amount of insurance claims of the Romanian subsidiary and ensures that a significant part (87%) of the risk related to the company’s portfolio is transferred outside the company. In this way, the risk is also retroceded to leading European reinsurers. Additionally, last year the shareholders undertook an increase in the capital of the Romanian company by RON 100 million (EUR 20.3 million). In addition to that, Euroins Romania has continued to diversify its portfolio in order to reduce risk. Last year, the market share of the insurer in the MTPL segment decreased by 15% to around 28% based on the number of policies issued by the company and registered cars in the country. Compared to the number of active policies at the end of 2022, this share is even smaller - 27.68%. The expectations of the management are that by the end of this year the market share of Euroins Romania will be further reduced to 25% and will be comparable to the one of the company's two direct competitors in the segment. At the same time, the company's premium volume, generated by non-MTPL segments, has been constantly increasing. For the past year, this volume has doubled.

At the end of December EIG sold its insurance operations in Belarus and Russia. At the same time, the company kept unchanged its participation in the other countries in this region - Georgia and Ukraine. In Ukraine, the group’s two local units adapted their activities to the conditions of the war and continued their operations.     

“We are closing a year full of challenges that we could hardly have imagined. I am sincerely satisfied that we managed to cope with such a situation and further improve our performance in the two main business areas we operate in - energy and insurance. The energy sector has faced enormous challenges in the past year, but we have managed to take advantage of the opportunities presented and I expect good results this year as well. We have kept the activity of our two insurance companies in Ukraine and have taken care of our employees as best as we can. All our insurance units are well capitalized. This also referred to our Romanian division, for which we have taken additional measures ensuring even higher financial stability. With over EUR 200 mln invested in Euroins Romania through acquisitions and capital increases over the years, as well as through the support we have provided to the company in the past difficult years for the Romanian insurance market, we have clearly and repeatedly confirmed our commitment to developing the company and serving our millions of customers,” commented Kiril Boshov, chairman of the management board of Eurohold.

In June 2022 Eurohold sold its automotive and leasing business. Thus, their results are no longer consolidated. Eurohold kept its financial and investment operations concentrated in Euro-Finance AD and relatively smaller compared to the other segments, which slightly increased their revenues and were also profitable.