Hyderabad:
The Indian general insurance industry, with 33 players,has missed its much expected target of Rs 2 lakh crore annual premium in 2019-20 as disruptions caused by nationwide lockdown, due to outbreak of Covid 19, has pulled down the industry's total premium in March.
The industry at Rs 15,784.66 crore of premium, has degrown by 10 per cent in March while for the whole year at Rs 1,89 lakh crore of annual premium, ithas grown by 11 per cent, the lowest in recent years.For the rest of the 11 months, the domestic general insurance industry, at an average, had grown by 15 to 16 per cent.
Led by the New India Assurance(NIA),all the top 10 general insurers, except United India Insurance and HDFC Ergo General Insurance, have witnessed a deceleration in their premium growth though all of them except ICICI Lombard General Insurance and Tata AIG General Insurance,have achieved positive growth in the whole year.
The NIA,the largest general insurer in the country, has seen its premium in March falling by 20 per cent to Rs 2000 crore from Rs 2500 crore.while for the full year, its global premium has risen by 12 per cent to Rs 26,700 crore. The Indian general insurance multinational as ended the year with 14 per cent market share.
Rest of the three public sector general insurance companies,United India Insurance, National Insurance Company and Oriental Insurance Company, have recorded a low single digit growth for the whole year.
The listed largest private sector general insurer, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, which had exited crop insurance business in 2018-19, at Rs 13,312 crore,has degrown its annual premium by 8 per cent.It has a market share of 7 per cent in the industry.
Bajaj General Insurance, at Rs12,780 crore,has grown its annual premium by 15 per cent in 2019-20.HDFC Ergo General Insurance, at an annual premium of Rs 9,308 crore, has risen by 8 per cent.during 2019-20.Reliance General Insurance at an annual premium of Rs 7,465 crore , has recorded a growth of Rs 20 per cent in 2019-20.
HDFC Ergo General insurance with a total premium of Rs 9,308 crore, has increased its premium by 8 per cent in 2019-20.
Tata AIG General Insurance Company, which has also withdrawn from crop insurnace market, at Rs 7,387 crore, has reduced its annual premium portfolio by 5 per cent in 2019-20.
Reliance General Insurance, at Rs 7,465 crore, has grown its business portfolio by 21 per cent in 2019-20.
SBI General Insurance has vastly improvd its position in the industry by expanding its premium portfolio by 44 per cent to Rs 6,790 crore.
The total annual premium of six stand alone health insurers at Rs 14,409 crore, has gone up by 27 per cent, the lowest in recent times, in 2019-20. However, at Rs 1,800 crore,they have recorded a positive growth in their premium for the month of March.
DHFL Genreral Insurance after being acquired by Sachin Bansal's Navi Technology from Kapil Wadhawan owned Wadhawan Global Capital (WGC), has been rebranded as NAVI General Insurance and has ended the year with a total premium of Rs 157.99 crore, down 35 per cent, in 2019-20.
Go Digit General Insurance, with stakes from Prem Watsa and Kamesh Goyal at Rs 2,198 crore, up 145 per cent has recorded the highest per centage of growth in 2019-20 in the industry.