Motor Policies Prop Bajaj Allianz Sales

Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company, with sales of around 55,000 policies, is the largest private sector general insurer in terms of number of policies sold, the company claimed today.

Of the total policies sold since its products were launched in May, nearly 80 per cent was accounted by motor insurance. Out of this 55,000 policies, 48 per cent or around 26,400 were sold to the buyers of Bajaj scooters, Bajaj Allianz General's chief executive officer Sam Ghosh said.

According to Ghosh, the company has generated a premium income of around Rs 24 crore so far and hopes to hike this figure to Rs 40 crore by the end of this fiscal. Another Rs 150 crore premium is expected in the next fiscal, he said, adding that the company is expected to break even by the end of 2002-03.

"We hope to break even by the end of next year, which would be our first full year of operation. But it depends on how we keep our costs low," he said.

Bajaj Auto chairman Rahul Bajaj said that the life insurance company is expected to break even by the end of the fifth year of operations, which were kicked off last month.

At present Bajaj Allianz has around 45 products on offer, which include personal as well as commercial lines. It hopes to generate equal revenues from both the segments of general insurance.

Bajaj also said that he is open to the idea of Allianz hiking its equity in the company as and when the government permits higher foreign investment in the insurance sector. At present foreign investment in the insurance sector is capped at 26 per cent.

Bajaj Allianz has a paid-up capital of Rs 110 crore and Bajaj said that the promoters would infuse capital as and when required.