By  Michael Bowen 

Brazilian insurance company Marítima Seguros is considering acquisitions and sticking to IPO plans for the future so it can rank among the country's top insurers, executive director Milton Bellizia told BNamericas.

Related content

• Companies / Entities

  Superintendencia de Seguros Privados

  Marítima Seguros S.A.

  Agencia Nacional de Saúde Complementar

• Keywords

  Mergers & Acquisitions

  Financing

  Life, Health and Burial

  Property & Casualty

"We see some good acquisition opportunities and there are some insurers or healthcare plans that could prove to be interesting to Marítima," Bellizia said.

Earlier this month, Marítima backed off from plans to carry out an IPO this year and subsequently announced a capital increase of 76.0mn reais (US$43.9mn) to get in line with new solvency rules from insurance regulator Susep.

"We were going to do the IPO in October last year but the credit crisis started to send out smoke signals," Bellizia said. "We wanted to raise as much as we could but we saw we couldn't."

Bellizia said Marítima had everything ready to go for the IPO but was waiting for the right moment, most likely some time next year.

Marítima would also consider a capital or strategic partnership with foreign investors but only if the price was right and the Vidigal family kept control of the company.

"We could talk [with foreign investors] but our priority is still the IPO," Bellizia said.

"The majority shareholders wouldn't invest so much in increasing capital if they didn't believe in the business," he added.

The majority shareholders injected 69.0mn reais in capital this week, while minority shareholders will have 30 days to contribute 7.0mn reais.

Marítima aims to increase premiums 15% a year over the next four years, led by growth of property lines, life and health insurance, he said.

The insurer is aiming for earnings of 35mn-36mn reais this year, later rising to 65mn reais after the IPO.

Marítima made net profits of 15.7mn reais in 2007, down 33.8% on the previous year, although premiums rose 8.78% to 929mn reais last year.

Analyst and consultant Francisco Galiza ranked Marítima as Brazil's 14th largest insurance company with a 1.68% market share in terms of premiums excluding health and VGBL pension plans.

Susep does not monitor health premiums, which are supervised by private healthcare regulator ANS.