Birla Sun Life has 6.6% of pvt life ins mkt

Birla Sun Life Insurance captured a market share of 6.6 per cent among private life insurance players in the country as on March 2008. The increase is seen both in its individual as well as group business, the company's president and chief executive officer Vikram Mehmi said on Monday.

He said the company regained momentum during 2007-08, achieving an annualised premium equivalent of Rs 2,204 crore. The company recorded a growth rate of 131 per cent from last year's Rs 953.3 crore to be the fastest growing life insurance companies in India.

The company did not focus on increasing the distribution of its network when other players were expanding. This resulted in sales coming down but now the company is focusing on increasing its reach. The market share fell to 3.7 per cent in April 2007 due to non-expansion but bounced back to 8.1 per cent in October the same year and consolidated at 6.6 per cent at the end of the financial year, he said.

During fiscal 2007-08, the company doubled its advisers to 115,153 from 56,603 the previous year and increased the branch network to 339 from the earlier 137. Another 261 branches would be added shortly.

The company provided insurance to over 2 million lives including 1.5 million individuals and 500,000 through the group insurance scheme. The persistence rate (people continuing with the policy) is around 90 per cent, Mehmi said, adding that the bancassurance channel contributed Rs 453 crore out of the total Rs 2,220 crore. "We expect the growth to continue as there is a large untapped insurance market,'' he said, adding that not more than 20 per cent of the population was exposed to insurance.

Mehmi said the focus would be on tapping clients in rural areas, which contributed 20 per cent to its total business.

On the company's plans to enter the health insurance sector, he said Birla Sun Life would come out with new products by September end. "Health insurance is a new area. The market potential is huge and there is scope for late entrants too,'' he said.