OM Kotak Mahindra''s first premium income up 263 per cent

Mumbai: OM Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance (OM Kotak) yesterday announced a growth of 263 percent in its first premium income for the financial year ended March 2004. With a premium income of Rs. 127 crore in 2003-04 as against Rs. 35 crore in 2002-03, OM Kotak has grown aggressively over the previous year.

Commenting on the performance of the Company, Shivaji Dam, managing director, OM Kotak said, "OM Kotak, in its third consecutive year of operations, has shown commendable results. The building blocks now well in place are beginning to deliver.

Maintaining the consistency in our performance, we have grown faster than the private sector average. The key drivers for achieving this growth have been the products, the focus on the upper & middle class target segment, the geographical mapping-distribution channels and our fund performance." At OM Kotak, we are expecting to maintain this growth rate."

Today, OM Kotak has 41 branches covering 30 cities and would continue to focus on the top 40 cities in the country. It has total employee strength of 993 and 6800 life advisors.

OM Kotak's product policy is to develop products that are unbundled, transparent and offer value to its customers through a segmented approach. Its star product has been the Kotak Safe Investment Plan (KSIP) offering upside of stock market while protecting from the downside. This has been recognised by both market and consumers as a genuine innovation. The company has a full range of products from pure insurance to saving products and market-linked products, from children's insurance to retirement solutions and also rural products.

In terms of its fund management philosophy, OM Kotak's strategy is to show consistent growth over the long term. The returns in the balanced and the growth funds have been a good 31.79% and 43.25% respectively on an absolute basis (from June 30, 2003 till March 31, 2004)OM Kotak's tieups with Kotak Bank, Kotak Securities, Dena Bank, MMFSL and other corporate agents have helped ramp up distribution and extend the benefits of our products to a wider clientele. OM Kotak is currently selling a range of products from credit-term group plans to farmers buying tractors to extremely market savvy high networth investors through Kotak Bank & Kotak Securities. Each of these tie-ups has delivered on its stated objectives and is expected to grow aggressively in the coming years.

Following the worldwide trends on the group business front, OM Kotak has tied up with Swiss Life to leverage on its global affiliations. The group business has grown by 10 times over 2002-03. The company has plans to grow over 100% in the following year. The Oil India deal is a feather in the cap and its roster of clients cuts across key industries like IT, manufacturing, banking and finance.

Mr. Dam further added "We are the 4th most aware Life Insurance company as per ORG study. We are here not only to gain market share or share of the customer's pocket, but also to make a difference in consumer's lives. Fortunately, we at Kotak have the ability. Whether Car finance or stock broking, public issues or wealth management or for instance even Banking. We have already got a firm grip over the mind share, because we believe that mind share leads to a highly sustainable market share in the long run. The journey has just begun"