Life insurer IndiaFirst eyes Rs 50-crore net profit in FY18

Private sector life insurer IndiaFirst is eyeing Rs 50-crore net profit this fiscal, driven by significant growth in its new business premium besides retention of the existing customers.
The company, a joint venture between British multinational Legal & General and two state-run lenders -- Bank of Baroda and Andhra Bank -- had posted Rs 35 crore profit last fiscal.
"The company achieved a net profit of Rs 35 crore for the fiscal 2017 and now we are looking at increasing it to Rs 50 crore by March 2018," IndiaFirst Life Insurance managing director and chief executive R M Vishakha told PTI.

She said the company is working on a multi-pronged strategy to achieve the target and added that an expected increase in new business premium and retention of the existing policy holders will help in the profit growth.
The private sector life insurer intends to leverage the distribution channels introduced by regulator Irdai and is currently working on products which can be sold through POS (point of sale) and/or common service centres.
After the soft launch of one such product 'Insurance Khata' recently, the firm plans its pan-India roll out by November.

In terms of individual new business premium or annual premium equivalent (APE) year-to-date (YTD) in August, IndiaFirst Life grew 120 per cent as against the industry expansion of 26 per cent, Vishakha said.

"We intend to continue to maintain above average industry growth rate in future too" she said.
Individual new business annual premium equivalent of the company grew 120 per cent to Rs 189 crore YTD on August- end. Similarly, total new business APE premium grew 72 per cent to Rs 207 crore on August-end, she added.
Talking about the product mix the company has got at present, Vishakha said that Ulip comprises 50 per cent of the total retail space.
There is also a focus on increasing protection through group term policies.
So far, the company has insured 54,000 lives under group insurance products for the staff of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, she said.