Bharti AXA Life Insurance reports 10% rise in renewal premium at Rs 594 crore in April-September

Bharti AXA Life Insurance on Monday said it has registered a 10 percent increase in renewal premium at Rs 594 crore in the first half of the current fiscal year.

The company’s renewal premium stood at Rs 541 crore in April-September of fiscal year 2019-20, Bharti AXA Life Insurance said in a release. Bharti AXA Life Insurance is a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and AXA, one of the world’s largest insurance companies.

The COVID-19 crisis and subsequent disruptions hit the company’s new business premium income, which stood at Rs 318 crore in the half-year ended September 30, 2020 as compared with Rs 415 crore in the same period during 2019-20, it said. Annualized new business premium was at Rs 207 crore in the first six months of financial year 2020-21. Total premium income fell moderately to Rs 912 crore in April-September period of this fiscal from Rs 956 crore in the first six months of previous financial year, the insurer said.

The ongoing pandemic notwithstanding, the company recorded a surge of 25 per cent in its assets under management at Rs 7,987 crore in the first half of 2020-21 as against Rs 6,404 crore in the corresponding period of the last fiscal, it said. “The spread of COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the economy and the business sentiment in the short-term. Despite the challenging macro-environment affecting the new business adversely, we registered steady performance on many parameters and achieved double-digit growth in the renewal premium collection in the first six months of the current financial year,” Bharti AXA Life Insurance Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Parag Raja said.

The company’s assets under management saw a strong growth amid the slowdown triggered by the COVID uncertainty, he added. With economic activities picking up after easing of restrictions, the company is confident about the business recovery and growth in the second half of this fiscal, Raja said. Bharti AXA Life Insurance said it plans to expand its distribution footprints across the country and strengthen its multi-channel architecture. Currently, it has 261 branches and 36,526 advisors.

The company is focusing on digital innovation within its distribution bandwidth to meet the rising bar of higher service standards and growing customer expectations, the release said. Bharti AXA Life maintained business momentum amid uncertainties by embracing new digital tools and capabilities and enhanced experiences of customers, employees, partners and other stakeholders, it added.

“We are also looking at potential enhancements to the customer experience and additional opportunities for growth and scalability, apart from creating awareness about life insurance and capitalising on growth opportunities,” Raja said. The ongoing pandemic has invigorated the awareness about life insurance across India and made protection a stronger segment for future financial security of the people, he added.

“Our long-term outlook towards the life insurance business remains positive. We are building a robust and digitally-enabled frame of operations to adapt to the new normal." “In addition to our robust digital architecture for seamless and smoother services to the customers, we are also very sensitive and focused about claims management in these critical and challenging times to ensure customer satisfaction,” Raja said.