Refile: Austria's Uniqa and Raiffeisen to sell stake in Raiffeisen Life to Russian insurer

UNIQA Insurance AG

24/08/2023 09:56

(Amends headline)
       Aug 24 (Reuters) - Austria's Uniqa  UNIQ.VI  and
Raiffeisen Bank  RBIV.VI  are to sell their stakes in Raiffeisen
Life to Russian insurer Renaissance Life, becoming the latest
Western companies to leave Russia.
    The parties have agreed to keep the acquisition price
confidential, Uniqa said in a statement on Thursday on its
half-year results, adding that the transaction is expected to
close within the next six months. 
    Uniqa held 75% of Raiffeisen Life and RBI held the remaining
25%.
    "This means we are withdrawing from Russia," Uniqa's
Management Board Member for Customers & Markets International
Wolfgang Kindl said in the statement.
     Western companies have agreed to sell their Russian assets
or hand them over to local managers as they take action to
comply with sanctions over the Ukraine conflict and deal with
threats from the Kremlin that foreign-owned assets may be
seized.
    "Profit & Loss effect expected to be not significant," Erste
Group research commented.
    In the first six months of 2023, Uniqa's technical result in
Russia shrank to 5.8 million euros ($6.30 million) from an
adjusted 8.5 million euros in the first half of 2022.
    Uniqa more than doubled its pre-tax results in the first six
months of year, jumping to 215.9 million euros due to a more
favourable claims development, despite inflation-related cost
increases.

($1 = 0.9208 euros)

 (Reporting by Tristan Veyet and Anastasiia Kozlova in Gdansk,
Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich in Vienna, additional reporting by
Andrey Sychev; editing by David Evans)
 ((Tristan.Chabba@thomsonreuters.com;
anastasiia.kozlova@thomsonreuters.com))