Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Nov 01, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Nov 01, 2002 |
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Money & Banking
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Life Insurance Sun Life ready to hike stake in insurance venture
Rukmani Vishwanath
MUMBAI, Oct. 31 "CHEQUES in the mail just waiting to be cashed." That's how Mr Gary Comerford, Vice-President, International Marketing, Sun Life Financial and General Manager (India) put it when asked about his company's plan to invest more in its insurance joint venture with the Aditya Birla Group. Currently, the Government allows foreign equity only up to 26 per cent in insurance ventures. Mr Comerford, who is a director on all the four Birla Sun Life joint ventures, said, that the company has conveyed its desire to its stake up to 50 per cent in the insurance company, similar to the other three Birla Sun Life joint venture companies. "We would like at least to go up to 49 per cent to begin with and have informed all concerned authorities of our intention through diplomatic channels in India and Canada,'' he said. Speaking on the company's business strategy in India, Mr Comerford said, while LIC is a formidable opponent being the dominant force in terms of market share, it has not been servicing the urban up-scale market as it should have. As the insurance market is thrown open and expanding rapidly today, there are a lot of choices available to the customer in terms of insurance products, he said. "Our objective is to build a quality company in a consistent way through a strategy which we are good at and confident of. We want to be a significant player in India; among the top two or three in the near future''. Because of the broad market segments in India, the company has identified multiple distribution channels as a key to penetrating the market. "We are banking on our multi-distribution chain, educated advisors, good product design and expertise to widen our base. We are aiming to have more full-time insurance advisors. Birla Sun Life has around 3,500 insurance advisors so far and the preference is to have full time advisors,'' said Mr Comerford. Birla Sun Life Insurance is targeting a sale of 90,000 policies this year and expects to earn a premium income of around Rs 200 crore. The company sold 20,000 policies as on March 2002, for a sum assured of Rs 1,600 crore, earning a premium income of Rs 36 crore.
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