SBI Life eyes 30% growth in new premium next fiscal

The country's second largest private life insurer, SBI Life Insurance, today projected its new premium growth to be around 30 per cent in FY 09-10, a little higher than the current fiscal.

"We are likely to complete the current fiscal with around 25 per cent growth in the new business premium. The next fiscal is also likely to record 25-30 per cent growth," SBI Life's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Uday Sankar Roy told PTI here.

SBI Life had anticipated around 70 per cent growth in new premium for 2008-09, but extremely poor show in the fourth quarter impacted it hard.

Traditionally, the fourth quarter yields almost half of the business for the entire year for a life insurance firm.

"The poor show in the fourth quarter can be attributed to the current meltdown. It is not that there is not enough cash in the country. People are actually extra-careful with their money and are more conservative in their approach towards investment than before," Roy said.

SBI Life is likely to register three times growth in the renewals this fiscal, he said, adding that company's total premium growth was "not bad at all" during the year.

SBI Life would focus more on consolidation in the next fiscal than going on branch opening & recruitment spree and would start a new region in the North-East and launch a few new innovative products.

"We opened 250 branches in the current fiscal. Our approach in the next fiscal will be on consolidation, which is a must-do for the entire industry. We will recruit keeping in view of the business growth. It will be marginal," Roy said.

SBI Life Insurance has around 6,000 employees.

"We will start a new region in the North-East in the coming fiscal with a very senior officer in charge of it. This will take our total number of regions to nine," Roy said, adding that the area has huge potential since it has very low penetration.

On launching new products, he said that SBI Life would launch both ULIPs and traditional products next fiscal based on the existing product basket.