Bharti AXA to launch 6 products

Bharti AXA General Insurance Limited, a joint venture between the Bharti group and AXA, is set to launch six more retail products in health, motor and travel insurance segments over the next six months.

The six products have been submitted for the approval of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda,) which was expected to clear 2-3 products by next month and the remaining three within six months, Bharti chief executive officer and managing director, Amarnath Ananthanarayanan, said.

Bharti currently has a range of 56 products, including four health insurance policies. Since its inception two years ago, the company issued 450,000 insurance policies and settled 58,000 claims made by the policyholders.

Ananthanarayanan said the current focus was on the health insurance business, which was registering a compound annual growth rate of 30 per cent and had a potential to reach $8 billion by 2015 in the country.

He said the company was looking at launching a few products in the ‘retirement space’ catering to the health insurance needs of the elderly persons. Efforts were on to increase the contribution from the health segment to the company's total revenues from the existing 20 per cent to 26 per cent.

Keeping this in view, Bharti has tied up with 3,712 hospitals across the country where its policyholders can avail of cashless facility.

In 2009-10, the company collected a premium of Rs 320 crore and incurred a net loss of Rs 142 crore. In the current financial year, the company expects that its premium amount would touch Rs 550-600 crore.