New India Assurance Q1 net rises 42% to Rs 441 crore

Riding on fall in overall expenses and higher investment income, the net profit of the country's largest non-life insurer New India Assurance (NIA) rose by 42 per cent in the current fiscal's first quarter ending June 30 to Rs 441 crore as against Rs 311 crore a year ago.
The fall in overall expenses resulted in reduction of combined ratio in the reporting period by five per cent to 110 per cent.
Underwriting loss also came down to Rs 477 crore in Q1FY16 from Rs 536 crore in Q1FY15. The investment income in the first quarter increased to Rs 965 crore from Rs 938 crore.

Domestic premium of the company went up by 14 per cent to Rs 3,877 crore in Q1FY16 against Rs 3,398 crore. The market share of the company also increased to 16.7 per cent.
"The industry has grown its business by 12.5 per cent in the first quarter, whereas we at NIA have grown our business by 14 per cent during the period. We are expecting our growth to be at 16-18 per cent during the current fiscal," NIA chairman and managing director G Srinivasan said while announcing the first quarter results here today.
The company is looking at increasing its global premium from Rs 16,000 crore now to Rs 18,000 crore by the fiscal-end. "Rs 3,000 crore out of this will come from our overseas operations," Srinivasan said.

The incurred claim ratio of the company fell to 85.94 per cent in Q1FY16 from 87.24 per cent in Q1FY15. The net worth grew at 13.72 per cent to Rs 10,172 crore against Rs 8,944 crore in Q1FY16. The asset base has gone up to Rs 62,604 crore in Q1FY16 from Rs 56,416 crore in Q1FY15.
Commenting on the penalty of Rs 671 crore recently imposed by the Competition Commission of India on the four state-owned non-life insurers, he said, "We will be approaching appellate tribunal of the CCI shortly.