The ranking of the largest insurance companies in Serbia reveals that Dunav Osiguranje leads in terms of total premium, with a total premium amounting to 40.2 billion dinars in 2023. Following closely behind is Generali Osiguranje, with a total premium of 28.9 billion dinars. In third place is Wiener, with significantly less, at just 11.3 billion dinars last year.
On the other hand, data on total balance sheet assets shows that the top five companies still account for 77% of the total balance sheet. When measured by this criterion, Generali ranks first, with a 22.5% share and a balance sheet total of 77.4 billion dinars.
Dunav Osiguranje ranks second with 70 billion dinars in assets, accounting for 20.4% of the total share. Wiener, Grawe and DDOR Osiguranje round out the list of the top five companies.
These findings are based on data from the National Bank of Serbia regarding the operations of 16 insurance companies in the country.
Public procurement and state contracts
When looking at public procurement data, it becomes clear that, excluding Dunav, the state, its institutions, and companies have distinct preferences among insurers. This is especially evident when analyzing large public procurement contracts, specifically those subject to the Public Procurement Law.
According to this law, every procurement valued over one million dinars must undergo a procedure defined by the law.
Dunav as the clear favorite
Forbes Serbia’s analysis shows that since the beginning of the year, Dunav Osiguranje has been the absolute leader in public procurement. This includes both procurement covered by the law and those that are not but can still be found in the Public Procurement Portal registry.
Dunav Osiguranje has emerged as the winner in 2,773 procurement contracts this year. Of this number, 410 were high-value contracts subject to the Public Procurement Law. Dunav Osiguranje won the majority of these contracts on its own, with only a small portion in cooperation with other market participants. Its clients range from state-owned enterprises to schools, healthcare institutions, ministries, and government agencies.
In terms of public procurement volume, DDOR from Novi Sad ranks second, with over 1,100 total contracts, including 140 contracts exceeding one million dinars.
Private sector and state preferences
Interestingly, Generali Osiguranje ranks third in the overall procurement register. However, it only has 87 contracts in the high-value category. Similarly, Wiener Stadtische, the third-largest insurance company in the market, has just over 360 total contracts since the beginning of 2024, but none of these belong to the high-value category.
Globos Osiguranje, partially owned by businessman Ostoja Mijailović, has seen impressive growth in terms of the number of insurance contracts with the state. According to data from the Public Procurement Portal, Globos Osiguranje has secured 366 total contracts, with 129 of them being high-value contracts.
Triglav Osiguranje has been awarded 288 contracts, 57 of which are high-value, while AMS Osiguranje has 237 total contracts, with fewer than 20 being high-value procurements.
Companies with no major contracts
A search of the Public Procurement Portal reveals that, of the 16 insurance companies in Serbia, 10 have no contracts valued over one million dinars. This group includes Wiener Stadtische, Grawe, Milenijum, Merkur, Sava Life and Non-Life Insurance, Uniqa, Sogaz and OTP Osiguranje.
The last two—Sogaz and OTP Osiguranje—have no public procurement contracts at all since the beginning of 2024. The other companies in this group have far fewer contracts than the top six performers.
Ownership structure of insurance companies
According to data from the Central Securities Registry, 76.7% of Dunav Osiguranje’s shares are owned by the state, while the second-largest shareholder is the state-owned Shareholding Fund, with a 3.6% stake.
DDOR, based in Novi Sad, is fully owned by the Italian company UnipolSai S.p.A. Triglav Osiguranje is owned by the Slovenian company Triglav Int d.d., based in Ljubljana.
Generali Srbija belongs to the global Generali Group, which was established in 1831.
Wiener Stadtische is also owned by the Austrian company of the same name. In contrast, Globos Osiguranje is a relatively young company. It was founded in 1994 and became part of Ostoja Mijailović’s business empire in February 2020. It is owned by one of his companies, British Motors, which was directly owned by Mijailović until mid-2023. From then on, the company has been owned by Crossroad Group AG, a firm registered in Switzerland.
Sector performance in 2023
The total balance sheet of the insurance sector grew by 11.6% in 2023, reaching 375.5 billion dinars. Capital increased by 10.5%, amounting to 79.5 billion dinars. Total premium revenue rose by 15.9%, reaching 155.3 billion dinars.
