General insurers see 9% rise in premium

With companies curtailing their expansion plans and people cutting down expenses, the premium income of the general insurance industry went up by 9.09 per cent to Rs 30,601 crore in FY09 against Rs 28,051 crore collected in FY08.

Their premium collections grew by 12.63 per cent in FY08.

The industry has been hit by the economic slowdown as companies have deferred their expansion plans, thereby hitting the fire and engineering portfolio of the insurers.

With auto sales remaining weak with a mere 0.13 per cent growth in FY09, the motor insurance premium income was also hit.

Motor insurance, which accounts for nearly 50 per cent of premium income for most of the insurers, rose by 30 per cent during FY09 against 50 per cent in the previous year.
 

VITAL STATS Premium income of non-life insurers (in Rs crore)
Company	April - March 08	April - March 09	Growth (%)
New India	5,277.60	5,516.62	4.53
National	4,007.23	4,276.81	6.73
United India	3,739.56	4,275.44	14.33
Oriental	3,808.14	3,960.57	4.00
ICICI lombard	3,344.69	3,419.84	2.25
Bajaj Allianz	2,404.34	2,640.49	9.82
Reliance General	1,946.42	1,914.87	-1.62
IFFCO Tokio	1,235.83	1,515.52	22.63
Tata AIG	816.62	882.93	8.12
Royal Sundaram	696.63	806.22	15.73
Private total	11,219.12	12,571.76	12.06
Public total	16,832.53	18,029.44	7.11
Total	28,051.65	30,601.20	9.09

 

Travel insurance, though a small part of premium collection, was also affected as people travelled less.

During FY09, United India, the third-largest insurer, has come neck to neck with National Insurance for the second position. Its premium income grew by 14.33 per cent to Rs 4,275.44 crore as compared with Rs 4,276.81 crore collected by National Insurance.

Private insurers’ premium income grew by 12 per cent while the four public sector insurers — New India, National India and United and Oriental went up by 7.11 per cent.

Reliance General was the only insurer to report a fall in premium collection by 1.62 per cent. Insurance brokers said that the company’s lower income collection was mainly due to emphasis on the topline business.

Other large insurers, whose business has been shrinking over the last few months, managed to grow in March 2009.

Large private sector insurers — ICICI Lombard and Bajaj Allianz — saw their business shrink to Rs 164.27 crore and 232.99 crore in March 2009 as against Rs 201.81 and Rs 253.82 crore in the corresponding month last year.

During the current financial year, insurers expect their premium income to grow at sub-10 per cent rate as a result of the slowdown.