Devesh Srivastava,CMD, GIC Re
GIC Re, one of top 15 global reinsurers and third largest Asian Reinsurer, is currently undertaking major restructuring of its business portfolios to provide major focus on topline growth, said Devesh Srivastava,CMD, GIC Re
KPMG will act as a consultant of GIC Re for designing, implementing and supporting HR processes including digital transformation
Mumbai:
Embarking on a major business and organisational overhaul, state owned listed GIC Re has roped in international consultant KPMG to modernise its Human Resources(HR) and lay out digital strategies for developing its talent pool and manpower for faster business growth globally.
“Since, we operate globally, we want to have a HR system that is more aligned to the global standards and help our business to grow. We are adopting global best practices in risk assessment and we would continue to pursue that path for up-skilling of our manpower. KPMG will act as a consultant of GIC Re for designing, implementing and supporting HR processes including digital transformation,’’ confirmed GIC Re officials.
Out of two, PwC and KPMG, shortlisted consultants, KPMG was selected on the basis of overall eligibility criteria.
GIC Re, one of top 15 global reinsurers and third largest Asian Reinsurer, is also currently undertaking major revamping its business portfolios to provide a major focus on profitable growth,” said Devesh Srivastava,CMD, GIC Re.
“Restructuring is underway in terms of business portfolio composition and achieving pricing adequacy at contract level. This has involved process changes across the organization. The measures so far have focused on property and agri. This renewal, we have also touched upon other classes,’’ he added.
“In the past few years, GIC Re suffered huge underwriting losses in the wake of catastrophic events(CAT Events). This had led to hit the balance sheet hard and ate away the investment income. After actualising the situation GIC Re has restructured different segments and curtailed few businesses which generate losses,” explained Srivastava.
“. Our main objective is to maintain the solvency and control underwriting losses thereby improving our rating. We are bringing underwriting discipline through risk modelling for adequate pricing and interaction with the global expertise. The pandemic has brought under renewed focus, the resilience of the balance sheet and risk management processes of the risk carriers,’’ observed Srivastva.
On curtailing its Crop portfolio significantly in recent years, Srivastava said , “Having streamlined our portfolio during last two years, we believe we are in the right position in terms of pricing and capacity with some fine tuning as the situation warrants. Our risk appetite is broadly same as last year. We have not lost market for crop business. We have curtailed some agri business to control the underwriting losses.’’
On the reinsurer’s international operations Shrivastava said,“ Our international operations are doing fine and giving us the required spread in business for our operations. GIC Re has always been strong in the Afro-Asian market and it was only the America where GIC did not have a meaningful presence. However, with our Syndicate 1947 at Lloyds covering North America we are well serving our cedants through this platform.’’
Physical presence, in GIC Re’s international operations, when required will certainly be examined depending on its business requirement, he noted.
GIC Re, which has maintained its leadership in Indian market despite 10 major reinsurers setting up their branch offices in India in the last four years, almost receives 30 per cent of its business from its international operations.
On shutting down its Dubai office, Srivastava said, “ Our office was operational in GIFT City and we realized that it offers us some advantages over Dubai branch. Since with a long-term perspective, we believe we will upscale the GIFT City operations, we decided to shift Dubai branch operations to this office.”
On Covid related claims, Srivastav said, “ We did see some claims arising out of business interruption even in the absence of property damage from the markets in US and Europe as also in a small manner from our South African operations. However, the amounts were small.’’