New Reinsurance Pool Improves the Quality of Risk Portfolios in Central Asia and The Caucasus

Sosebashvili: Please can you provide us with a brief overview of Turan and its members?
 
Ejibia: Of course. The members of the association are private insurance companies, one from each state: Halyk (Kazakhstan), Apex Insurance (Uzbekistan), AzRe Reinsurance (Azerbaijan), and Aldagi (Georgia). Turan’s goal is to improve the quality of risk portfolios against the backdrop of the growing needs of the emerging markets of Central Asia and the Caucasus.

The project’s scope will include quotas or priority lines for practically the entire product line covering all regions of the participating countries. At the same time, both insurance premiums and losses will be paid in the policy currency, and payments between non-residents will be made in US dollars. Turan also plans to reinsure risks that are related to construction, traditional and green energy, financial lines, fleet, and aviation, and risks associated with property and civil liability.
 
Sosebashvili: What was the reason for creating this reinsurance pool?

Ejibia: The main reason was for all companies who participate in Turan to utilise their own capabilities effectively and improve regional relationships. In addition, recent reinsurance market tendencies meant a decreasing number of companies operating in the reinsurance field and resulted in increased prices.

Sosebashvili: To date there are four countries involved in this project – do they plan to involve other countries in the future?

Ejibia: Definitely. Pool representatives are currently negotiating with Turkish companies and are considering adding other Central Asian countries as well.

Sosebashvili: How does Turan differ from competitor offerings? Is it because it combines the experience from all the different countries involved?

Ejibia: Yes, that’s exactly it. We fully understand the specifics of all our local markets. Plus, we are flexible, and efficient, in our operations.

Sosebashvili: Doesn’t the participation of four countries prolong the processes?

Ejibia: Not at all. We are finding that timely and effective communication between the countries does not result in any kind of delay.

Sosebashvili: Will this pool be enough to meet the full demand of the market and fill the gap caused by the drops in Russian volume?

Ejibia: At this stage Turan’s resources are not enough, but filling the gap was never our goal. Nevertheless, over time, alongside the increase in volume, it could well be a solution to the problem..


About David Ejibia

In 1997 David Ejibia graduated Tbilisi State University’s faculty of Production Economy and Management. He also has a bachelor’s degree from Moscow State University from the faculty of Marketing and Management. Since then, he has gained 23 years’ experience in the insurance sector. He joined Aldagi in 2001 as Client Service Manager. Between 2003 and 2007 he went on to hold the positions of Corporate Sales Manager and Senior Manager and became Head of Corporate Sales in 2014. Since 2022 he has been the Director of the Inward Reinsurance Department

About Aldagi

The insurance company Aldagi is one of the oldest companies on the Georgian market and has developed an incoming reinsurance line which is crucial not only for Georgia but for Caucasus and for Central Asia, both of which represent the company’s reinsurance target market.

In 2023, Aldagi became the first company in the Georgian insurance sector to attain an international rating from the global rating agency AM Best. The company is a pioneer in setting up reinsurance lines – offering insurance and reinsurance services to its customers.

In corporation with its A-rated partners, Aldagi offers customers reinsurance in areas such as Property Named Perils/All Risk; BI, MB, MLOP, CAR, CAR TPL, CPM, Professional Indemnity, CARGO, Specialty Lines, GTPL, MTPL, EL, PA.