Insurance Group of Georgia has been selected as the No. 1 motor transport insurance company of 2019, having received the most influential business award of the country, the Golden Brand award.
This year the company was also registered on the whitelist of the State Procurement Agency of Georgia, which registers only companies, which in the last three years have fulfilled all their obligations in good faith.
A company on the whitelist is considered more credible in public procurement procedures and has a number of simplified procedures in further procurements.Only four insurance companies are registered on the whitelist and one of them is the Insurance Group of Georgia.
“In the last three years, the Insurance Group of Georgia has properly fulfilled its obligations under more than 30 contracts signed with state organizations in the field of health, property and motor insurance”, said the founder of the Insurance Group of Georgia, Archil Morchiladze.
Insurance Group of Georgia has been operating on the Georgian market since 2017.
“Our management is staffed by people with many years of experience in the field of insurance.We quickly managed to take our place in the Georgian insurance market. Six months after the establishment of the company, in the first quarter of 2018, the premium brought into the field of road transport insurance amounted to 2.65 million GEL, which was 11 per cent of the total market for that period.This was a good start!”, he said.
In 2018-2019, Insurance Group of Georgia signed insurance agreements with more than 30 key state agencies: the the Patrol Police Department, the Special Penitentiary Service, Tbilisi Transport Company, Georgian Railway, Emergency Situations Coordination and Emergency Center, Georgian Gas Transportation Company, Tbilisi City Council, the Supreme Court of Georgia, the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia, the Administration of the President of Georgia, the Social Service Agency, State Audit Office, Resource Officer, Ivane Javakhishvili University, Ilia State University and others.
“As of today, we have insured more than 50 public and private organizations”, said Morchiladze.
The company offers health, car, cargo, property, container hull, liability, financial risks, construction risks and accident insurance to the clients.
“Today, our company offers all the insurance products that a private or legal person may need”, he said.
In 2019, Insurance Group of Georgia reimbursed losses worth 9 million GEL.
“We have seen a 10 to 11 million GEL increase in earned premium in 2019 over 2018. We have already attracted 6 million GEL in the first quarter of 2020”, said Morchiladze.
The company’s net profit totaled $1 million in 2019.
Insurance Group of Georgia continues the digitalization of all services. The company offers even car insurance through a mobile application. When do you think to complete this process?
We are the only company to offer car insurance through a mobile application. Our customers are fully able to receive services remotely. With our app, we can receive photos of automobiles, which allows the customer to fully insure the car online. The app was launched in September 2019 and quite a lot of people have downloaded it; losses have been reimbursed and the policies have been subscribed to, however, customers do not use it actively and this is probably our biggest challenge. Somehow, we need to encourage people to start using digital, remote services more actively
What new products is the company planning to offer customers?
The development of new products in the field of insurance significantly depends on legislative regulations. The insurance industry has been waiting for the development of the above-mentioned sector for the last 20 years. Significant steps have already been taken by the government: in particular, the liability of automobile owners at the border has begun, products of public facilities and agro-insurance are being implemented, but the introduction of insurance of compulsory liability of automobile owners is of extreme significance, as it is one of the Euro-directives to be fulfilled by the country in 2020. It is also important to introduce compulsory health insurance, which is not only good for the citizens, but also alleviates the health care costs of the state.
The Insurance Group of Georgia has donated to the StopCov foundation that was created to help overcome the coronavirus crisis in the country. How much have you donated? What other measures have you implemented during this time?
Insurance Group of Georgia donated 50,000 GEL to the StopCov foundation.
Considering the difficult situation in the country, all insured individuals have been receiving all services through online platforms. They are also able to receive medical care at home, in accordance with epidemic conditions and state regulations.
Also, all staff have kept their jobs, regardless of the company’s sales decreased statistics.
Which are the most in demand insurance products at your company?
I would point out two products: health insurance and auto insurance.
About 38,000 beneficiaries use health insurance and about 3,000 have auto insurance at our company.
It seems the population saw the need for these products the most.
What is the market share of the Insurance Group of Georgia currently?
It should be noted that the Georgian insurance market puts its players in rather unequal conditions.The dominant share of the market is held by the banking companies, as well as the large players of the pharmaceutical market and the companies that operate in the hospital sector.
Together with other companies, we have already requested the government stop the expansion of the banking sector and to set certain regulations inhibiting the banking sector in this field.
If independent insurance companies are not allowed to operate in a competitive environment, our population will again find themselves hostage to the insurance of several major banks or the insurance company affiliated with it. I mean both in terms of price and the quality of service.
According to our generated premium, we have been taking from 9th to 11th place on the market over the last two years.
It is important to note that our strategy is not just about generating premium, the main thing for us is to keep the company’s financial data reliable. Since the first day of operation, we have reliable reinsurers, the company holds compulsory reinsurance contracts in the field of property, cargo and auto insurance with the largest reinsurers in the world with AA-rating Scor, Hannover Re and Munich Re, which is the reinsurer of IGG in terms of agro insurance.
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