Domestic general insurers slug it out to grab corporate policy pie

Venkatachari Jagannathan
24 March 2003

Chennai: All the 12 players in the domestic general insurance industry are competing each other to grab a sizeable chunk of corporate policies (mainly fire, burglary and personal insurance policies) that are coming up for renewal on 1 April 2003. Nearly 65 per cent of corporate insurance policies generally fall due on that date.

And the four government-owned non-life insurers are resorting to fire-fighting measures, since the private sector has started making serious inroads into their domain. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) figures suggest that private players as a whole have booked around Rs 350-crore fire insurance premium during April 2002-January 2003.

Leading the pack is ICICI Lombard General Insurance, which is tapping the major accounts held by the government insurers. The company has booked Rs 105-crore premium under its fire insurance portfolio out of a total premium income of Rs 174 crore for the 10-month period this fiscal.

The company is also the first non-life insurer to sign its reinsurance agreements for the next fiscal. According to K Bharathan, regional head (south), the company has signed up with Munich Re for its reinsurance needs.

Following ICICI Lombard are Iffco Tokio (Rs 87 crore), Reliance (Rs 50 crore), Bajaj Allianz (Rs 39 crore) Royal Sundaram (Rs 35 crore), Tata AIG (Rs 28 crore) and Cholamandalam General Insurance (Rs 3.99 crore). The private sector as a whole has booked around Rs 350 crore as fire insurance premium.

Cholamandalam General Insurance and HDFC Chubb General Insurance started their operations only in October 2002. Says Satish Deshpande, head claims-reinsurance, Cholamandalam: “We are also gearing up for corporate business and most of our reinsurance is with the national reinsurer, General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC).”