Swiss Re looks for Indian partner for insurance

Swiss Reinsurance, the world’s second-largest reinsurer, said it was looking for a local partner in India as it considered entering the country’s life and health insurance market.

“We see good potential in life and health market in India and would make an exception to our model of purely being a reinsurer to enter indirectly through a minority joint venture,” Michel Lies, member of Swiss Re’s group executive committee for client markets, said on Monday.

According to the company, property and casualty reinsurance in emerging markets offer the maximum growth potential for the company as Asian governments spend more on infrastructure projects requiring coverage.

Growth from the US and other developed countries is expected to be little changed or slow.

The Zurich-based company would be a minority partner in the local joint venture, Lies said. It was also in talks with the government to provide insurance coverage for natural disasters, said Reto Schnarwiler, a director.

China, Brazil and Mexico made up about five per cent of Swiss Re’s 29.7 billion Swiss francs ($30.5 billion) of gross written premiums in 2009. The company doesn’t break down the premium income for other emerging markets.

Swiss Re said in June it expected annual growth in the property and casualty reinsurance market to be 6.5 per cent over the next decade, while the life and health market would grow at 3.7 per cent a year.

Swiss Re is bidding to regain its credit rating cut by Standard & Poor’s in February last year, after record losses forced the company to turn to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.