Non-Life State Insurers & #8217; Vice-Hold Continues

The four public sector non-life insurance companies, National Insurance, New India Assurance, United India Insurance and Oriental Insurance have captured a 90.54 per cent of the total premium underwritten for the ten months ended January 2003, according to the statistics released by the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (Irda) here.

The eight private sector companies accounted for 9.46 per cent (Rs 1,094 crore) of the Rs 11,558 crore gross premium reported by the general insurance business.

Of the four PSUs, New India led with 27.91 per cent (Rs 3,226 crore premium) of the total business underwritten in the ten months period, followed by United India at 21.58 per cent (Rs 2,494 crore) and Oriental and National could collect almost equal premium at 20.5 per cent (Rs 2,372 crore) each.

Among the private insurance companies, Bajaj Allianz was the most aggressive, capturing 2.03 per cent of the total non-life business, while five other insurers underwrote premium in the range of 1.3 to 1.6 per cent of total business.

While Bajaj could underwrite a premium of Rs 235 crore, Tata AIG stood second with Rs 184.81 crore while ICICI Lombard, the third ranker could underwrite Rs 174 crore premium. Two latest entrants, Cholamandalam and HDFC Chubb are yet to collect significant amount of premium.

For the private players, Fire business accounted for the maximum business underwritten at Rs 350.59 crore, followed by Motor business at Rs 294 crore.

Engineering business accounted for Rs 105.97 crore while Health and Marine segments followed at Rs 68.29 crore and Rs 64.35 crore, respectively. These five segments accounted for 81 per cent of the business underwritten by the private players.

Among the public sector companies, only Oriental furnished the premium break-up, which reveals that motor insurance segment premium at Rs 851 crore, followed by fire insurance at Rs 477 crore.

Aviation and gealth segments accounted for Rs 231 crore and Rs 161 crore, respectively.