IndiaFirst Life eyes 1,000-crore new biz

Hyderabad: IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company on Wednesday said it was eyeing new individual premium business of Rs 1,000 crore in the current fiscal year against Rs 685 crore it clocked in the last fiscal.

"As we increased focus on retail or individual insurance segment, we are targeting Rs 1,000 crore new premium business in this segment. As of September, IndiaFirst Life collected Rs 325 crore in annualised new premium in retail segment in the current fiscal. This represents nearly 29 per cent upswing from Rs 253 crore we did in the same period last fiscal. We need to push up growth to reach Rs 1,000 crore mark though," Rushabh Gandhi, Deputy CEO, IndiaFirst Life, told the media here on Wednesday.

The insurance firm, which is completing 10th year of its operations in India this year, collected a total premium of around Rs 3,200 crore last fiscal. This includes renewable premium. "We did total premium business of Rs 1,462 crore in the first half of current fiscal against Rs 1,325 crore in the same period last year. Our total premium business will be like last fiscal's as we lowered focus on corporate insurance, but increased focus on retail segment," he added. AP, Telangana accounts for 20 per cent of its business.

Promoted by Bank of Baroda and Andhra Bank, the insurance company clocked combined annual growth rate (CAGR) of 46 per cent in the last four financial years. Bank of Baroda holds 43.30 per cent stake in the entity while Andhra Bank has 29.53 per cent stake.

The remaining 27.17 per cent stake is with private equity firm Warburg Princus LLC. On Wednesday, the insurance firm launched SmartPay insurance plan here, which offers flexibility in premium payments.

Source: The Hans India