Cholamandalam aims for 40% growth

Murugappa Group's company Cholamandalam MS General Insurance is aiming for 40% growth this fiscal, a top company official today said.

"This (financial year we are expecting for a 40% growth (compared to last year) with a gross written premium of Rs 1,400 crore," Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Managing Director SS Gopalarathnam told reporters here.

The Chennai-headquartered company generated total premium of Rs 968 crore last year, with a majority coming from motor insurance.

Giving a break up, he said last year motor insurance premium contributed 60%, while health was 20% and the remaining from marine, engineering and fire verticals.

"This year the motor (insurance) will come down nearly by 2-3% while health will slightly perform better by 22-23%," he said.

With a focus to build the health insurance portfolio, the company planned to launch about seven products this year of which two -- Chola Total Home Protect and Chola Individual Healthline -- were launched today.

Chola MS General Insurance Senior Vice-President (Marketing and New Initiatives) Shivakumar S said they were awaiting regulator's approval for some of the products.

He said in the last six years the firm had served about 8 million customers. Cholamandalam MS General Insurance is a joint venture between Murugappa Group and Japan-based Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group.