It may take upto eight months to list: New India Assurance

Country's largest non-life insurer New India Assurance, which has received nod for listing, may take 6-8 months to hit the market, a top official said.
Moreover, all the four state-owned non-life insurance companies are not likely to hit the market in one go, he said.
In mid-January the Cabinet approved the plan to list the five state-run general insurance companies including only state-owned reinsurer GIC Re, under which the government will reduce its holding in them 75 per cent.
"It will take 6-8 months for us to hit the market as we will have to file the prospect, go for roadshow and finalise the banker," New India Assurance chairman and managing director G Srinivasan told mediapersons here today.

"All the four state-owned non-life insurers can't go for listing together. Still, I can only say that as a direct state-owned insurer, New India will be the first to hit the market," he said.
He was talking on the sidelines of launch of Premier Mediclaim Policy which comes with a sum assured of Rs 15 lakh to Rs 1 crore. The policy can be taken by an individual as well as family floater cover.

As of now, New India enjoys the market share of 17 per cent in the industry.
Talking about the nine-month performance of the company in the current fiscal ending December 31, he said that New India's net has come down by 38 per cent to Rs 455 crore from over Rs 730 crore a year ago.

"It was basically due to few major claims which had been settled by the company in segments like fire and group health insurance," he said, adding, "the pricing has gone up by 40-50 per cent in group health insurance and 10-20 per cent in fire." The company was selective when it comes to group health insurance, he said.
The company has registered global premium of Rs 15,543 crore during the reporting period, showing a growth of 21.11 per cent. Moreover, the company has a networth including fair value of Rs 30,845 crore and an asset base of Rs 64,392 crore.

"We have already crossed the global premium of Rs 18,000 crore as of January 31 and we are very close to achieve the projected global premium at Rs 20,800 crore by March-end."
On New India's plan of global expansion, Srinivasan said, "We have already got an office at Dubai and we are looking for a licence for the office to be converted to a branch. We are looking for expanding in countries like Myanmar and Qatar."
About the industry's growth, he said it has already crossed the business of Rs 1 trillion and was likely to achieve Rs 1.2 trillion mark by the fiscal-end.