Reliance Life seeks to double market share in three years
10 Jul 2010
Reliance Life, the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group's life insurance venture, said on Friday that it has sold 60 lakh policies in less than five years of operations, and aims to double its market share to 10 per cent from the current 5.5 per cent in the next three years.
"The six million policies landmark in less than five years of operations is a testimony to the trust and confidence of our customers ... the company is targeting a 10 per cent overall market share in the next three years to become one of the largest private sector insurers," Reliance Life's president and executive director Malay Ghosh told reporters in Shimla, where he was attending a conference.
Reliance Life Insurance sold the highest number of policies among 22 private sector players in 2009-10. During the year, the company sold about 23.2 lakh policies against 22.1 lakh policies in the previous year.
"We hope to achieve an overall premium of Rs20,000 crore and more than double our assets under management to cross Rs30,000 crore in the next two fiscals," Ghosh said. In the first two months of the current fiscal, the first year premium collection of Reliance Life increased by 22.5 per cent to Rs316 crore.
Ghosh said that the company expects to achieve break even in the next fiscal. He added that Reliance Life would require Rs250 crore in the current fiscal, of which Rs70 crore has already been infused.
Apart from a mix of unit linked and traditional products, Reliance Life also plans to focus on the evolving health insurance segment in the country. "We are strengthening our health insurance portfolio with innovative products ... we aim to be among the top three health insurers by 2012," Ghosh said.
Replying to questions on the controversial unit linked insurance products, Ghosh said, "ULIPs constituted around 90 per cent in the company's product basket in the last fiscal, which is expected to decline to 60 per cent in the current year."
The life insurance industry as a whole grew 25 per cent in terms of first year premium collection in 2009-10. The 23 life insurers mopped up premium of Rs1.09 lakh crore in the last fiscal, compared to Rs87,108 crore in 2008-09.