Three Italian insurance companies intend to enter the Romanian market, being interested in buying ASIROM and ASIBAN, Guglielmo Frinzi, the president of the Romania-Italy Chamber of Commerce, told Rompres yesterday.

In his words the three important companies interested in Romanian insurance companies are Fondiaria-Sai, Reale-Mutua and Cattolica. Fondiaria-Sai ranks second in terms of market share in Italy after Generali. At the end of May, 106 European insurance companies had notified the Commission of Insurance Supervision about their intention to operate directly on the Romanian market.

On the other hand the value of commercial exchanges between Romania and Italy could reach EUR 11 bln. this year, EUR 500 M more than in 2006, Guglielmo Frinzi added. The value of the commercial exchange with Italy reached EUR 10.5 bln last year, of which Romanian exports made up EUR 4.6 bln., and imports from Italy EUR 5.9 bln., according to the data offered by Mircea Toader, director in the Ministry for SMEs, Commerce, Tourism and Liberal Professions.

Italy ranked first in Romania’s commercial exchange for the 1997 to 2006 period, being surpassed this year by Germany. There are approximately 20,000 Italian companies registered in Romania, and about half of them are active.