Icici Prudential Sees 1 Lakh Policy Sales This Fiscal

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd (IPLIC) expects to sell one lakh new policies in the current fiscal.

IPLIC, managing director, Sikha Sharma, says this will translate to a premium earning between Rs 1,600 crore and Rs 1,700 crore, and the company hopes to break even within four years.

Meanwhile, IPLIC has already crossed the Rs 100-crore mark in terms of sum assured by selling 6,387 new policies last year. The average sum assured was Rs 1.54 lakh, while the average age for the insured was 33 years.

"Our experience in the first four months reveal that there is an insatiated demand for non-traditional products and policies with attractive flexibility options," explains Sharma. In fact, more than 60 per cent of the policies sold by the company in the first four months of operation has some proportion of riders in-built in the policy.

The company expects to add another 800 agents to its 1,200-strong client network who are differently trained to meet different customer requirement. Plans are also to increase the number of offices in the country to 12 by the end of 2001.

The company is also planning to infuse more funds. While the authorised share capital of the company is Rs 200 crore, it will increase its equity to Rs 300 crore from the present Rs 150 crore in another one-and-a-half year's time.

Sharma said the company expected the insurance market to move to new innovative and flexible products, unbundling of benefits to suite customer requirements at different age. Pension products, says Sharma, will also be one of the fastest selling product in the country.

The company is considering a tie-up with ICICI Bank's corporate clients. "We will start selling our products once things the guidelines are available," said Sharma.