Mumbai:
State -owned New India Assurance, has posted a growth of 20 per cent in domestic premium at Rs 16,800 crore for the nine months ended December 31, 2017, against Rs 14,000 crore in the year-ago period.
The largest general insurance company in the country has recently concluded a Rs 3-lakh-crore insurance cover for Reliance Industries, the largest risk cover in the country. The premium income from the cover will be Rs 725 crore.
According to G. Srinivasan, chairman and managing director of New India Assurance, the growth momentum of the company is expected to continue, aided by the greater reach of the non-life industry.
The company has also secured the aviation insurance cover for Air Deccan. "The recent entry into Deccan Aviation insurance that has made a foray into regional air connectivity has strengthened the hold of the company in the growing aviation sector where most of the companies are insured by New India. New India has also bagged the health insurance scheme of the Rajasthan state government covering four crore people with a premium income of Rs 1,200 crore.
In emerging business, New India said it has already issued cover for three insolvency professionals providing indemnity cover. The company is also a big player in the cyber insurance segment providing cover to many major financial institutions.
The company is focusing on the retail business and has added 10,000 agents in the current year. The company is also expanding its low-cost micro office model for small towns. Over 1,400 such offices are already operational.
Around 15 per cent of the business of the company is secured through digital means. According to Srinivasan, this is expected to grow at a high pace in the coming period.
NIA reported a profit after tax of Rs 1,248 crore in the first half of the current financial year, an increase of 161 per cent over the same period a year ago. The insurance company has solvency of 2.24 and networth of Rs 37,000 crore.