Public sector insurers embarking on branding makeover

Public sector insurers are going for a branding makeover amid the government announcing its plan to list such entities, along with the country's sole reinsurer GIC Re.
In his Budget speech on February 29, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced that the government will list the state-owned general insurers New India Assurance, United India Insurance, National Insurance, Oriental Insurance and reinsurer GIC Re. However, no timeline was given.
New India Assurance, the largest general insurer in the country, recently launched its rebranding exercise with the tagline 'India's premier multinational general insurance company'.
This is for the first time that the company, set up by the Tatas in 1920 and nationalised in 1972, having a global footprint, is trying to project itself as a multinational.

"Being a market leader, it was important to do something more on the branding front. It was basically done to strengthen our identity and it also means that we want to have strong presence globally," New India Assurance Chairman and Managing Director G Srinivasan told PTI here.
"The company is ready for disinvestment as per the government plans. The company's financials are healthy, the business and market share is growing both in domestic and international markets," he added.

The company has an asset base of over Rs 60,000 crore and investment corpus of over Rs 40,000 crore as of December 2015.

Kolkata-based National Insurance is also planning a brand makeover.
"We have always been trying to increase the brand equity percepts of the company through tie-up with corporates and B-to-B activities. However, we are waiting for instructions from the government before we start working on our branding exercise," the company's CMD K Sanath Kumar said.
"What the Finance Minister announced in the Budget on listing was just an outline. We are waiting for the detailed guidelines before going for valuation and other such activities," he said.
As of now, not a single insurance company, either from life or non-life sectors, is listed. There has been talk for quite sometime that companies like SBI Life and HDFC Life may go for listing.

A senior Irdai official said, "Irdai has already issued listing norms for the insurance companies in the past, but we have nor yet received any such proposal from the insurers.