Trade Unions Voice Concern over Pension Insurer Sale
Thursday, 01 January 1970
The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB), one of the country's two biggest labour unions, voiced concern about the lack of transparency regarding the sale of the biggest pension insurance company in the country, Doverie.
According to media reports, Vienna Insurance Group, which holds of 92.48% in Doverie, is in talks with a UK-registered company, United Partners, to sell the stake for over 150 million euro ($192 million). Information about United Partners is scarce.
Any destabilization of the biggest pension insurance company in the country could lead to a collapse of the local pension insurance market, CITUB said in a statement without naming the buyer, and insisted on meeting the prime minister, regulators and the national security agency to discuss the matter.
At the end of 2013, Doverie managed assets worth over 1.9 billion levs ($1.2 billion/972 million euro) and had over 1.25 million clients.
CITUB stressed that the relevant institutions should adhere strictly to all provisions of the law, especially those concerning the origin of funding, identification of the shareholders and capital in the field of supplementary pension insurance, and added that it is ready to take any steps permitted by law to protect the interests of pension plan holders.
In a separate statement, CITUB called for early elections amid mass anti-government protests in the country which have been going on for nearly a month.