Commercial Union Poland Life Insurance Company yesterday received the Golden Parasol award for the life insurance company of the decade from the monthly magazine Home & Market.
Commercial Union Poland Life Insurance Company yesterday received the Golden Parasol award for the life insurance company of the decade from the monthly magazine Home & Market.
At the same time Zbigniew Andrzejewski, chief executive of CU Poland group and CU Life was placed in a group of 20 heads of companies awarded the title "Manager of the Year 2004" by the journal’s editorial board.
The editorial board of Home & Market recognised CU Life for its "persistence, quality of service, recognisability and long-term well-established position in the Polish life insurance market".
Ten years ago, in 1994, CU Life took in 37 million zloties (Ł6.2 million) in premiums and made 2.3 million zloties (Ł0.4 million) net profit. This same year the company became the leader in the individual life insurances market in Poland (after two years in business).
Last year’s results illustrate the scale of the company’s development over the decade. Premiums written amounted to almost 1.8 billion zloties (Ł300 million), and net profit was 377 million zloties (Ł63 million).
Last year the company paid out around 27,000 benefits from basic life cover and additional options together. The highest benefit paid out following the death of the insured person exceeded 436,000 zloties (Ł72,500). Besides these payouts, one key measure of the benefits that the company provides for its customers was the excellent results from its life capital funds.
According to the figures published in the national quality newspaper Rzeczpospolita on 27 January 2005, the Dynamic Fund and the Equity Fund offered by CU occupied the top two places among equity-oriented funds last year. The CU Balanced Fund attained the best result in its peer group in 2004. CU funds have also brought customers top rates of return in several categories over the last 3 and 5 years.
Over the course of the last ten years, Home & Market has awarded annual Silver Parasols to life and general insurers receiving most mentions in research carried out among the Polish business community. CU Life was twice a Silver Parasol laureate, in 1997 and 1999.
In 2000 it was awarded a special parasol for the creation of the highest-rated financial group in the insurance sector. In 1999, CU Poland General Insurance Company was also awarded a Silver Parasol in the category of companies offering property insurance.
For further information:
Grażyna Goslings, Corporate Communications Director, CU Poland Group, tel. + 48 22 557 40 93, e-mail: bohdan_bialorucki@cu.com.pl.
For further information on the Commercial Union Poland Group, see also website at http://www.cu.com.pl
Notes to editors
Commercial Union Poland Group is part of the international Aviva Group – the world’s fifth- largest insurance group and the biggest in the United Kingdom by revenues. Aviva Group operates in 30 countries. It occupies a strong position in the European Union markets, including the UK, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Poland. The Group serves approximately 25 million customers world-wide and manages assets worth over Ł240 billion. For additional information, see the website http://www.aviva.com