BMI's Executive Summary

[TOP]

The Sector At A Glance

Key Insights On Latvia's Insurance Sector

Latvia's Insurance sector, like its counterparts in the other Baltic states, will never be large. The life segment, in particular, is at an embryonic state of development. What is also undeniable, though, is that premiums will grow quickly. As is the case in neighbouring Estonia, this is in part because of brutal competition - particularly in the non-life segment. Latvians are getting good deals from their non-life insurers or, more precisely, the insurers' shareholders.

This situation cannot continue indefinitely. At some stage, there will be a change to the competitive landscape of Latvia's insurance sector. As we explain in the Analysis of Competitive Conditions, this will almost certainly involve rationalisation of a market that is distinguished by a surprisingly high number of small local firms. Earlier this year, Parekss was bought by the much larger Norwegian group Gjensidige. We envisage that there will be other departures from Latvia. Indeed, some of the major cross-border groups may decide that Latvia is a market that they do not need to be in.

Key Features Of This Report - And Likely Future Changes

As we envisaged earlier this year, this report includes a completely new and updated Analysis of Competitive Conditions. We have looked at the corporate websites of around 60 companies to assess where they are active in the non-life and/or the life segments. We have also considered the likely growth in absolute premiums, both for the 36 countries that we survey, and for 24 others. A key observation is that there are many countries where the numbers of cross-border insurance companies are surprisingly large, given the scale of the market opportunity: conversely, there is a number of countries where the cross-border insurance companies that are present are surprisingly small.

In the third quarter of 2006, we hope to improve the Analysis of Competitive Conditions and to include actual premium statistics for the end of 2005.

Contents

[TOP]

Chapter 1 - The Sector At A Glance

Table: Latvia Overview

Key Features Of This Report - And Likely Future Changes

Chapter 2 - Latest News

Evolution Since The Mid-1990s

Table: Latvia Evolution of the Insurance Sector (in millions of currency specified)

Chapter 3 - Projections And Forecasts

Table: Latvia BMI Projections (in millions of currency specified)

Projections And Drivers Of Growths

Chapter 4 - Macroeconomic Outlook

Table: Latvia - Economic Activity

Chapter 5 - Country Update

Political Risk - Sense and Sensibility

Economic Risk - Growth Accelerates

Business Environment - Infrastructure Weakness

Chapter 6 - Analysis of Competitive Conditions

Table: Non-Life Segment - Rankings of Markets

Table: Presence of Non-Life Cross-Border Insurers

Table: Selected Local Non-Life Insurers

Country Overview - Latvia - Life Segment

Table: Life Segment - Rankings of Markets

Table: Presence of Life Cross-Border Insurers

Table: Selected Local Life Insurers

Who's who in the Central and Eastern European region?

Chapter 7 - Regional context

Table: Regional Context - premiums

Table: Regional Context - Total premiums

Chapter 8 - Methodology And Objectives

Introduction

Background

Chapter 9 - Appendix

Table: Latest Estimates / Actual Figures For 2005

Table: Latest Estimates For 2010

Table: Latest Estimates For 2005-2010 (Growth In US Dollar Terms)

Competitive Landscape for Europe Insurance Reports: Sample of
    Companies Ranked

[TOP]

A cross-border overview of key players and their insurance market share across Europe. Tables and graphs show country presence of multinationals across the region. Comparative company analyses and rankings by premium income (life and non-life). Company SWOTS for leading life and non-life insurers, covering network of offices, presence of foreign stakeholders, strategic relationships, joint ventures; portfolio of clients; diversity of product range; profit growth, investment strategy and risk exposure.

Network of Insurance Sources

[TOP]

BMI's European Insurance Reports are based on an extensive network of multilateral organisations, government departments, insurance industry associations, chambers of commerce and company reports. Information sources include:

Read about our other Insurance Reports