Aegon Religare to infuse Rs 230 cr in 2009-10

Private life insurer Aegon Religare Life Insurance mulls infusing up to Rs 230 crore in the company this fiscal to meet its operational and hiring expenses and maintain solvency margin.     

"We have plans to infuse capital to the tune of Rs 220-230 crore in 2009-10 for meeting our operational expenses and maintaining our solvency margins as per the requirement of IRDA," Aegon Religare Chief Marketing Officer Yateesh Srivastava said.     

The company injected a sum of Rs 300 crore in the last fiscal.     

Besides, the insurer also plans to hire over 10,000 fresh advisors in 2009-10 in order to strengthen its foothold in the life insurance market.     

"We will be taking the strength of advisors from 4,800 at present to 12,000-15,000 in the current fiscal so as to capture the growing insurance market," Srivastava said.     

There is an immense potential for insurance business in the country as only one fifth of the total population is insured, he added.     

The company is looking at a premium income of Rs 240 crore by the end of current fiscal against Rs 45 crore mobilised in 2008-09.

"Since we started our operations 10 months back, we did a business of Rs 45 crore in last fiscal but in this year we are eyeing premium income of Rs 240 crore on the back of hiring of more advisors," he said.

In addition to it, the company also plans to increase its customer base to one lakh customers in 2009-10 against 30,000 at present by offering specialized products which would suit their financial needs.     

"We have specialized products which have been designed for taking care of the needs of people in an efficient manner which will drive growth for the company," he said.     

The company is a joint venture between Netherlands-based Aegon and diversified financial service group Religare, in which Aegon has 26 per cent stake.