PZU, WARTA venture East in search of new markets

As the national insurance market has become saturated, two of the largest insurance companies, PZU and Warta have decided to expand into Lithuania, Ukraine and Latvia. "Within the next two years we are planning to enter the Ukrainian market, where we are carefully looking at selling property and life insurance products. We are also analyzing possible investments in Latvia," said Piotr Kowalczewski, a member of PZU's supervisory board. He added that expansion into Latvia would mean that PZU would acquire an already existing foreign company over there. The second largest insurance company, Warta, did not want to reveal any specific information about their expansion plans. "Our strategic partner, Kredyt Bank, is already present in Lithuania and Ukraine. We have analyzed these markets and have a good idea of what we need to do. Now we have to start making hard decisions," said Agenor Gawrzyal, the director of Warta. (Gazeta Finansowa, 12-18 October, p. 5) A.K.