United India set to revamp its operations

United Indian Insurance Company is planning to start a new wave of transformation aimed at enhancing the human resources utilisation and to increase productivity of employees to ensure an improved performance across various verticals. The company is also targeting to achieve around Rs 11,000 crore premium in the present fiscal.

"We are targeting a premium of Rs 11,000 crore with a profit-after-tax (PAT) of Rs 600 crore in this fiscal year. We're looking at starting the second wave of transformation for which the bid to select consultants has already been floated," said Milind Kharat, chairman-cum-managing director, United India Insurance Co Ltd.

He said the insurance firm had already implemented recommendations of a first wave of transformation started in 2007-08 at various levels, including the agencies and verticals like motor vehicle claims and bancassurance.

"We have seen results of the first wave of transformation like our market share has gone up and the growth has become higher than the competitors. Now, we have seen that the verticals are not doing well. So we want to transform the business," said Kharat.

Last time, the transformation was based upon a report of global consultant firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the company is expected to finalise the consultant for the second wave in a month.

BCG, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, McKinsey and Deloitte, are said to be bidding for the consultancy in the second wave, according to sources.

The insurance firm would continue to focus on retail business through agents and in the present year add around 530 micro offices. It would also increase focus on its information technology activities, including expansion of info-kiosks and online policies.

It posted a 36 per cent growth in net profit to Rs 527 crore for the fiscal 2012-13, as against Rs 387 crore for the previous year.

The premium increased 13 per cent to Rs 9,266 crore during the fiscal from Rs 8,179 crore in the previous year with an accretion of Rs 1,087 crore.

Of the total premium of Rs 9,266 crore, the motor segment consisted of 36.58 per cent compared with 36.14 per cent during the previous fiscal. The health portfolio stood at 28.52 per cent (27.29 per cent) and fire portfolio at 12.10 per cent (11.89 per cent).