Chola MS General Insurance eyes GWP of Rs 1,900 cr in FY14

Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company is eyeing gross written premium of Rs 1,900 crore by the end of this fiscal with a focus on retail health and motor insurance, a top official said here today.
The city-based company is a joint venture between Rs 225 billion Murugappa Group and Japan-based Mitsui Sumitomo Group.
"Last year (2012-13) we finished (gross written) premium of Rs 1,621 crore. This year we are expecting to complete by Rs 1,850 or Rs 1,900 crore (GWP)," Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Managing Director S S Gopalarathnam told reporters.
The company offers insurance products across accident, health, liability, motor, property, travel and rural segments.

"We are on track (in reaching our target). In the first quarter we exited from RSBY (Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana) Scheme. That was contributing about 12 per cent. The reason we exited was because the charge was reduced by 50 per cent," he said.
Noting that bulk of business was contributed from retail and group health insurances,he said the company has set a target of taking the contribution of health insurance to 25 per cent, motor insurance to 55 per cent and commercial to 20 per cent.

On the outlook, he said the company hopes to register a gross written premium of Rs 7,500 crore by 2020. "Even 55 per cent of contribution comes from motor insurance by 2020, it will be a substantial amount for us," he said.

The company currently has about 9,000 agents and this would be doubled by end of the next (financial) year, he said.
Gopalarathnam and senior company executives were here to announce the launch of the company's mobile application 'Chola MS Wellness' for new health insurance customers.
The application available on Android-operating system enabled phones, would benefit customers on details of the policy, coverage, sum insured among others.
He said the company has allocated about Rs 25 lakh for this purpose and appointed an external agency towards this initiative.
"Initially, we made a soft launch on February 1 and so far 235 people have downloaded the application and 27 of them have activated the application", Cholamandalam M S General Insurance Senior Vice-President (IT and Operations) Sundar V said.

The company is also gearing to make the upgraded mobile app available in the next few months for health as well as to motor insurances, he said.