A rich vein

Skandia's Polish branch is among the company's fastest-growing, says Skandia's CEO Julian Roberts. "The Polish office has done extremely well over the last few years," he says.

Bogusław Skuza, CEO of the Polish division of the company, stresses that not only has the Polish market shown higher returns-on-investment (ROI) than foreign markets, but Skandia Poland itself has experienced rapid growth. "While in recent years the market developed at the rate of 12-14 percent, our average was over 60 percent," he points out.

Skandia is now ranked fourth in the individual unit linked market, with a 7.2-percent share, and with a 2.7-percent share in the total life assurance market, it comes in seventh in Poland. Skandia's market share in the country grew from 1.2 percent in Q4 2005 to 2.6 percent in Q1 2006, while net profit increased from zł.3.09 million in Q2 2005 to zł.11.32 million in Q2 this year.

Skuza stresses that the company is set to grow larger. "We have ambitions to build a company that will have a 10-percent market share," he says.

Skandia Poland was set up in 1999. Currently, it accounts for a nine-percent share of new sales in Skandia's European and Latin American markets.

Skandia, a member of the Old Mutual group, provides long-term savings solutions in Europe and Latin America, South Africa and the US. It's total funds under management amount to EUR 314 (zł.1,250) billion.