Demco Insurance heads from Cyprus to Greece – may also offer Life

Demco Insurance Ltd., the newly licensed insurance company owned by Greek entrepreneur Demetris Kontominas, will soon expand its operations to Greece and may consider offering limited life insurance to complement its full range of general insurance products.

Demco Insurance Chairman Demetris Kontominas said the company aims to be active in Cyprus and Greece and does not consider the markets as separate. “This is the EU, it does not matter where you are based, it’s one single market and we want to be active where there are opportunities.”

Kontominas is a legend in the insurance industry, both in Greece and Cyprus. Having set up Interamerican in Greece, he expanded the life insurer to Cyprus, which was subsequently sold to the Dutch-owned Eureko in Greece and to the Shacolas-owned Paneuropean Insurance Group in Cyprus, which in turn was sold to Laiki Bank. He then helped establish Interlife in Cyprus, which was also later taken over by Eureko.

In addition to his love for insurance companies, Kontominas is an active investor with as many as 50 enterprises under his control, including Alpha TV, one of Greece’s top rated media companies.

Flanked by Demco General Manager Pantelis Panteli (a former Interamerican Cyprus executive), Kontominas told reporters at the launch of Demco Insurance in Nicosia on Tuesday that the emphasis will be on offering a comprehensive package of insurance products, backed by top service and reasonable pricing.

Demco officials say they don’t intend to take business away from other insurance companies, but will instead look to gain new clients, thus expanding the market in the process, which is why there is no specific market share target.

Demco was set up after Kontominas bought Ledra Insurance from Pancyprian, a member of the Hellenic Bank Group for EUR 2 mln, and subsequently renamed it.

Asked by the Financial Mirror as to when Demco Insurance would enter the life insurance sector and if there were any restrictions imposed on him not to engage in life insurance in Greece after Interamerican was sold, Kontominas said, “there is no rush to get into life insurance.”

He explained that with most banks offering bancassurance products at “rock bottom” prices, “life insurance is not as profitable as it used to be since banks are undercutting prices and for an independent company offering only life insurance, it’s very difficult to have a satisfactory return.”

“That is why we have decided to concentrate on the general insurance business, but this does not mean that we shall not offer some life products in the future,” Kontominas said, adding that “there are no restrictions against me having life insurance operations in Greece or elsewhere. In any event, even if there were, I could easily bypass them.”

Demco will be active in home, car, fire, personal accident, medical, employers liability and other general insurance sectors, and will also offer free consultancy in home support and medical packages.