Azerbaijan, Baku, 31 January / Trend corr U. Ismayilova / Standard Insurance OJSC, one of the largest insurance companies in Azerbaijan, was founded in 2002. The company offers services on 28 types of insurance, with 4 of them being compulsory. Standard Insurance is the first and the only Azerbaijani company which received international rating and is included into the Security List of Lloyds broker.
In an exclusive interview with Trend the company's Chairman of the Board Kamal Ibrahimov spoke about last year's achievements and further plans:
Question: What did Standard Insurance achieve in 2007?
Answer: Doubling of the authorized capital to AZN 8mln is among the company's achievements of 2007. As a result, we are among the three authorized capital leaders. By the way, we plan to expand our authorized capital even more in 2008.
Last year, Standard Insurance again proved its correspondence with the quality certificate ISO 9001:2000. Finally, in 2007 we received the international rating B1 (positive) - the highest rating in the Azerbaijani fiscal market. The rating was issued by the Moody`s Investors Services.
Last year is also remarkable by the fact that the company was the first Azerbaijani insurance company to declare opening of its branch abroad, namely in Germany. For the time being, solving of administrative issues is close to completion, so the branch will be put into operation within two months.
In 2007, our insurance premiums exceeded AZN 14mln, and our payments comprised over AZN 2.8mln. The rise in premiums made up some 70% in 2007.
Question: What does this rating mean for the company?
Answer: First of all, rating B1 (positive) indicates the company's financial stability, which makes it easy for us to involve world insurance companies into cooperation in the field of large insurance risk re-insuring. By the way, we plan to improve the rating.
Question: What are the company's plans for 2008?
Answer: I have just mentioned our plans to receive a new rating. Moreover, we intend to dramatically increase our premiums to AZN 22mln in 2008. The company plans to expand both in the country and abroad.
In conclusion, very soon we will offer a range of insurance products and services which are unique for Azerbaijan. Presently, they are being developed, so it is too early to speak about them just now.