Top 10 life insurance cos in the country:ET

Top 10 life insurance cos in the country

Life Insurance Corporation of India
LIC still remains the largest life insurance company accounting for 64% market share. Its share, however, has dropped from 74% a year before, mainly owing to entry of private players with innovative products and better sales force. LIC experienced growth of only 5% during 2007-08 in new business premium. It had an estimated 1.1 million licensed agents, with the private insurers adding another 900,000.LIC witnessed decline in sales by 24% for new business premium for the first four months for the current financial year. Total sales stood at Rs 10,797.1 crore during April-July as against new sales of Rs 14,186.04 crore in the corresponding period last financial year.This is was mainly due to slowdown in economy and crash of stock market. Also, private companies are eating the share of LIC by introducing innovative products.

ICICI Pru is the biggest private life insurance company in India. It experienced growth of 58% in new business premium, accounting for increase in market share to 8.93% in 2007-08 from 6.97% in 2006-07. Total premium collected increased to Rs 8,305.80 crore from Rs 5,254.64 in 2006-07. Total number of policies sold went up by 49%, from 1,960,034 to 2,913,606 in 2007-08, with a market share of 5.73%.Renewal premium had gone up by 101% to Rs.5,526 crore from Rs 2,751 crore. The company has 950 urban and 1,000 non-urban branches across the country. For the first four months of current financial year, it reported growth of 45.3%.

Total new business premium collected by Bajaj Insurance was Rs 6,491.70 crore in 2007-08. The company reported a growth of 52% and its market share went up to 6.98% in 2007-08 form 5.66% in 2006-07. The company ranked second (after LIC) in number of policies sold in 2007-08, with total market share of 7.36%.For the period of April – July 2008, total amount of new insurance premium sold was Rs 1,197.95 crore as against Rs 1,075.93 in the same period last year, experiencing a growth of 11.35%. Number of policies sold dropped by around 3%. Bajaj Allianz Life has a strong distribution network across the country with over 1000 branches spread over 950 towns. It plans to raise its capital base by infusing Rs 500 crore in next few months to support its expansion plans.


SBI Life Insurance Co Ltd
State Bank of India has a 74% equity stake and the balance 26% is held by French firm Cardif SA in SBI Life insurance. The company broke even in March 2006. It’s the fourth year of operations. SBI Life leveraged the 14,000-odd bank branches of its parent SBI to push insurance policies. The company grew 142.5% in the first four months of the current fiscal year. Total market share of the company increased from 3.14% in 2006-07 to 5.15% in 2007-08, making it the 4th largest company in India. However, in terms of new number of policies sold, the company ranked 6th in 2007-08. New premium collection for the company was Rs 4,792.66 crore in 2007-08, an increase of 87% over last year. The company this year got approval to open 100 more branches to sell life insurance products.


Reliance Life Insurance Co Ltd
Reliance Life has sold maximum number of new group non-single policies in 2007-08. It experienced a phenomenal growth of 196% in 2008. Total new business premium collected was Rs 2,792.76 crore and its market share went up to 2.96% from 1.23% a year back. It now ranks 5th in new business premium and 4th in number of new policies sold in 2007-08.RLIC has been one of the fast gainers in market share in new business premium amongst the private players. It has crossed 1.7 Million policies in just two years of operations, after its takeover of AMP Sanmar business. The number of policies sold in the year 2007-08 stood at 10.74 lakh as against 4.51 lakh in the previous year. In a short span of time, the company accomplished a large distribution set-up by opening 600 branches in 10 months, taking the overall branch network to above 740.


HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co Ltd
HDFC Standard Life operates across more than 726 cities and towns of the country. It also has more than 383 corporate agents and other sales intermediaries, including banks like Union Bank and Indian Bank, for distribution of insurance products. The company strengthened its number of offices from 103 to 572 across the country in less than three years. The company also increased its depth in existing markets by increasing its financial consultant strength from 74,000 as on March 31, 2007 to 1,45,000 as on March 31, 2008. The Company generated new business premium income of Rs 2,680 crore in FY2007-08, registering a year-on-year growth of 64%. Its market share is 2.88% and it ranks 6 th among the insurance companies and 5th amongst the private players.


Birla Sun Life Insurance Co Ltd
It is a joint venture between the Aditya Birla Group and Sun Life Financial Inc of Canada for asset management, life insurance and wealth management businesses. The Aditya Birla Group holds 74% and Sun Life Financial holds the rest 26% in the company. The company reported growth of 157.18% for the first four months of the current fiscal year. For year 2007-08 growth in new business collection was 122.60%. With this growth rate, market share of the company increased from 1.22% to 2.11% in 2007-08. The company moved to the 7th position in 2007-08 from 8the a year before, pushing down Max New York Life insurance company. During 2007-08, an additional capital of over Rs 550 crore had been infused in various trenches by the company. With this growth rate, the company is expected to break even by 2010, its ninth year of operations.


Max New York Life Insurance Co Ltd
The company reported growth of 73% in 2007-08. Total new business generated was Rs 641.83 crore as against Rs 387.51 crore. The company was pushed down to the 8th position from 7th in 2007-08. Market share of the company increased from 1.17% to 1.71%. Its performance has been very moderate as compared to other private companies. New business premium from April – July was Rs 641.83 crore. This is an increase of 66% over the same period last year. The company plans to increase its capital base to Rs 3,600 crore from Rs 1,200 crore at Present. It is planning to add 14,000 employees to its present strength of 11,000 to reach 25,000 by 2011 and open 250 new offices every year to reach more than 1,600 offices in different locations.


Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Ltd
Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance is a joint venture between Kotak Mahindra Bank, its affiliates and UK-based financial services firm Old Mutual plc. Total new premium collected is Rs 345.15 crore for the first four months as against Rs 159.95 cr, reporting a phenomenal growth of 160% over the same period last year. For the fiscal 2007-08, the company reported growth of 80%, moving from the 11th position to 9th. It captured a market share of 1.19% in 2007-08. Last year the company doubled its branch network to 150 from 74. The company is planning to increase this figure to 210 by end of this fiscal. Promoter of company - Kotak Mahindra Bank -- plans to expand to 250 branches from the existing count of 185 in the next year. With this the insurance company will have about 500 outlets to sell policies. Most of the expansion — around 75% -- is in tier II and tier III cities.


Aviva Life Insurance Company India Ltd
Aviva Life is a joint venture between FMCG major Dabur and the UK-based Aviva Plc. Growth in new insurance premium was mere 0.81% from April – July 2008 against the same period last year. Performance of company was very moderate last year also with reporting growth in new business of only 46%. Total premium was Rs 1,059.08 crore in 2007-08 as against Rs 724.03 crore in 2006-07. Market share of the company was 1.13% in 2007-08. The company ranking dropped to 10th in 2007-08 from 9th last year. It has presence in more than 3,000 locations across India via 221 branches and close to 40 bancassurance partnerships. Aviva Life Insurance plans to increase its capital base by Rs 344 crore. With the fresh investment, total paid-up capital of the insurer would go up to Rs 1,348.8 crore.

Source: Northbridge Capital thro ET