HDFC Life premium collection up 28.5%

Private insurer HDFC Life today said it has posted 28.53% growth in total premium collection at Rs 9,004 crore in FY11 and expects to break-even this fiscal.

HDFC Life saw a total premium collection of Rs 7,005 crore in 2009-10, company Managing Director and CEO Amitabh Chaudhry told reporters here.

"We did extremely good business in FY11 and expect a growth of 15-20% in business in this fiscal. Rise in premium collection and reduction in operating cost will help us to break-even this fiscal," he said.

The company reduced its losses to Rs 99 crore in 2010-11, compared to Rs 299 crore in the previous fiscal, he said.

The total capital expenses were reduced from 16% in 2009-10 to 13.5% in FY11, he said.

"We have reduced our branches to 499 from the earlier 560. We expect to reduce it further in this fiscal," he said.

However, the company will continue with the net addition of employees, which is presently 12,500, he said.

The total capital requirement of the company in FY12 is expected to be Rs 100-120 crore, Chaudhry said.

HDFC Life, which is in its tenth year of operations, has infused Rs 2,160 crore till March 31, he said.

"In spite of significant challenges in the market we responded extremely well and demonstrated better traction than our competitors and we ranked number three in FY11 among the private insurers," Chaudhry said.

HDFC Life's individual new business saw a growth of 26.69% at Rs 3,488 crore compared to Rs 2,753 crore in FY10.

The renewals of existing policies went up by 37% to Rs 4,924 crore from Rs 3,627 crore in the previous fiscal.

The company, he said, expects the new business margins to be 16-17% in FY12, he said, adding, in FY11 the new regulatory norms had affected the volume of business as well as its margins.

The private insurer, a joint venture between HDFC and Britain's Standard Life, also plans to come out with 10-12 products in the current fiscal, mostly under the unit-linked portfolio, he said.

"Presently, our product mix is 70:30 (traditional:ULIP), which we plan to bring to 80:20 in FY 12," he said.