Mumbai:
The domestic general insurance industry led by the recently listed New India Assurance(NIA) at Rs 108, 784 crores has recorded almost a growth of 20 per cent during the first nine months of the current fiscal.
Largely driven by the Prime Minister Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), the industry at Rs 91,514 crore had grown by 30 per cent during the first nine months in the previous fiscal 2016-17.
During the third quarter ending in Dec 2017, private sector ICICI Lombard General Insurance that also recently got listed the Indian bourses, has toppled the public sector entity Oriental Insurance Company (OIC) as the fourth largest general insurer in the country in terms of premiums and market share. ICICI Lombard General Insurance post Dec 2017 has a market share of 8.76 per cent while OIC has a market share of 7.72 per cent
K. Sanath Kumar, CMD, National Insurance Company
“The growth in the industry is quite robust at 18%. Though it is less than the last year’s growth at 30 per cent, but then, last year the growth had been driven by Prime Minister Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). Keeping in view the fact that the country’s GDP was not so high, this growth for the industry is really good,’’ said Sanath Kumar, CMD, National Insurance Company, which is preparing itself to be listed in the Indian bourses soon.
Industry may not be able to achieve the growth at 30% this year because the growth had been unusual last year which was driven by Rs 21,000 crore of agri premium which came as an additional benefit to the industry last year. The agri premium may not fall this fiscal, but at the same time, it may not grow as well, added Sanath Kumar.
Mumbai based NIA’s business portfolio has grown by 20 per cent from Rs 14,000 crores to Rs 16,806 crores during the reporting period. The company has a market share of 15.45 per cent in the general insurance industry.
The other general insurers which have crossed Rs10,000 cr premium mark during the third quarter ending in Dec 2017 are -United India Insurance (UII) at Rs11,987 crore(Rs 11,678) and NIC at Rs 11,732 cr (10,109) cr.
The other general insurers which have exceeded Rs 5,000 crore mark in premium income during the first nine months of the current fiscal are – Oriental Insurance Company at Rs 8,396 crore(Rs 7,774), ICICI Lombard General Insurance at Rs 9,431 crore (8,059 cr) , Bajaj Allianz General Insurance at Rs 6692 cr(Rs 5387 cr), HDFC Ergo General Insurance at Rs 5491cr(Rs 4244 cr).
Two technology driven general insurers- Go Digit General Insurance having stakes of Prem Watsa and Kamesh Goyal) and Acko General Insurance with investment from well known tech entrepreneur Narayan Murthy- have also opened their accounts during the last two months.
Six stand alone health insurers at Rs 5179 crore have grown their portfolio by 43 per cent during the three quarters ending in Dec 2017.
The premium for the Agriculture Insurance Company (AIC) has grown by 24 per cent to Rs 6370 crore during the reporting period while the state owned credit insurer ECGC has seen its premium almost flat at Rs 879 crore during the first nine months of the fiscal.
“We at NIC have already achieved 15% growth in business in the first nine months of the fiscal and we are likely to cross Rs 167,000 crore by the fiscal-end, when compared to Rs 14,266 crore as on March 31, 20o17. We are focusing on both bottomline and top line.We will have higher profitability this fiscal than last year,’’ said Sanath Kumar.
For NIC , motor and health constitute almost 40 per cent and 32 per cent respectively.