VIG Insurance buys Merkur Sarajevo

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Merkur insurance company shares have been sold Friday on the Sarajevo Stock Exchange.

There were 6,000 shares traded in the amount of 25,425,780 KM.

To recall, the Austrian Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) announced late last year that it had agreed to fully acquire Merkur.

The takeover deal was signed on October 30, 2017, and the transaction, as it was then said, needed to be approved by the local authorities. Friday’s trading completed this process.

Merkur insurance company, headquartered in Sarajevo, was established in 2003. In 2016, the company had a gross premium of around 14 million Euros and held 4.4 percent of the BiH market, but also 21 percent of the market in life insurance.

VIG already operates in BiH through its member Wiener Insurance, whose headquarters is in Banja Luka.

This is the second big acquisition in the market, after Bosna-Sunce insurance company (BSO) acquired Zovko insurance late last year for 9 million KM, thus forming Adriatic Insurance. On the other hand, as previously announced, Merkur will continue to operate as a separate brand within the VIG.