Exide Life Insurance targets 10% growth in 2014-15

Strong re-branding exercise and an expected turnaround in the economy are spurring the company's aims

Exide Life Insurance, the company which switched to its new name a couple of days ago from the ING Vysya Life , on Thursday said it has targeted to achieve a growth upwards of 10% in the current year on the back of a strong re-branding exercise and also helped by a turnaround expected in the economy.

Total premium income of the company grew 5% to Rs 1,830 crore in the year 2013-14 from Rs 1,742 crore in the previous year on the back of a reasonable growth in renewal premium. However, the growth in new business premium decreased by 3% during the same period, mostly on account challenging economic environment in the country, according to Kshitij Jain, managing director and CEO of the company.

He said the company has been focusing on expanding the network with nine offices in the country's eastern region and the new product offerings to gain the market share this year. The company has submitted nine new products for the approval of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) out of which it hopes to launch three products in the current quarter.

According to him, one of these products comes with a premium band of Rs 6,000-Rs 12,000 keeping middle income families in mind. As a predominantly tier-2 city player the company expects this product to do particularly well, he said.

Responding to a question on the possible change in bankassurance channel from being an agent to a broker, Jain said selling insurance products of multiple companies by a bank while acting as a broker is pretty complicated. "If the bank provides a proper advise to customers in choosing the products of one or the other company that is fine. If it is not done that way then the problems will arise. That is why it should not happen in a sudden manner,"he said.

However, he said Exide Life is insulated from any adverse impact on account of this because its business is not overly dependent on one single distribution channel. The bankassurance partner ING Vysya Bank contributes 22% to the Exide's insurance business business while 60% business comes from its captive agent network, according to him.

The total assets under management of the company stood at Rs 7,490 crore last year.