Werner Zedelius: When Allianz Group began investing in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) fourteen years ago, we immediately put out our antennas in the Romanian market. That's when we started to establish our close relationship with Ion Tiriac. Mr. Tiriac was already well known as a respected frontrunner of investing in projects and new ventures within Romania and a symbol for the change in the country and the region.

When Allianz decided to enter the Romanian market in 2000, it then was a natural decision to extend our successful working relationship with Mr. Tiriac to a partnership by acquiring 51 percent of Asigurari Ion Tiriac.

Zedelius: Yes, at that time it was a risky move. The Romanian insurance market was in a challenging state. The country's hyperinflation and general economic conditions were not favorable for the insurance business.

Yet, Allianz consciously decided to act as an early mover into the market. Thinking mid-term, we were sure to have hit the right time for entry; a strategy we have followed throughout our activities in CEE and which has proven to be successful, also in Romania.

Zedelius: Even before purchasing the majority-share, Asigurari Ion Tiriac was already a well-established entity in the market. But since 2000, Allianz-Tiriac has tremendously extended its customer reach serving more customers at higher quality. Since 2000, we more than tripled the size of our customer base to around 325,000. The same applies to our distribution network which was expanded to 158 territorial units.

But more importantly, we increased our sales effectiveness in our sales force, concentrating on quality all the way. And it's paying off. Since 2000, we have almost quadrupled our premium income from 35 million euros in 2000 to an estimated 134 million euros in 2003. Already in 2002, we even became Romania's market leader with 108 million euros in premium income on IAS basis.

Zedelius: Allianz-Tiriac's clients could always count on our core Allianz principle "a promise is a promise" and have had their claims honored appropriately. This has helped the company bring forward a unique value proposition to the market of which, as you can see, more and more customers have been convinced.

Besides lending Allianz-Tiriac our financial strength and international reputation, we have given them access to a number of our Competence Centers. These offer assistance and advice on all insurance-related topics, notably on product development. For example, Allianz-Tiriac was able to use the know-how of Allianz Group experts when launching life insurance activities in autumn 2001.

Zedelius: For the New Europe, and especially with EU-accession, prospects are bright. In the region, the insurance density is still at a comparatively low level when compared to Western countries. We therefore see significant additional growth potential for Allianz in CEE.

The period of high start-up costs in the region is nearly over for us. We have laid the basis across the region and are now looking forward to developing our business successfully. Our task in the future will be to continue to increase the profitability of our activities in CEE and to raise the percentage of premiums contributed by these markets to total Group premium income.

Zedelius: In Romania, the financial markets are becoming more and more attractive in terms of return and market risks, and the EU-accession will accelerate this development. This has helped manifest the foundation of our business. Thus, we have set ourselves ambitious targets for the future.

Looking forward I can confirm the goals of Allianz-Tiriac's anniversary program "Ten years. More powerful". With Allianz-Tiriac we are dedicated to achieving continued stronger than market growth and efficiency measures. For this next level of development we remain strongly committed to our customers' needs and the market.

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