Wakeup call

26 September 2003

Bangalore: There is a flurry of activity at Brigade Seshamal, the multi-storied headquarters of MetLife India Insurance Company here. After an uneventful year, the life insurer is venturing into the lucrative Indian insurance market with a newly drawn-out battle plan.

MetLife India, to freshen your memory, is a three-way joint venture between Metropolitan International Holdings USA (an affiliate of life insurance giant Metropolitan Life Insurance, New York), Jammu and Kashmir Bank, M Pallonji and Co and other private investors. The company sold its first policy in January 2002.

After the mandatory initial enthusiasm, MetLife went into limbo while other private life insurers marched ahead. In the last fiscal the company closed with a premium income of Rs 6.20 crore — of course, not half as glamorous as its competitors'.

Now, it looks like, there is going to be some action. MetLife has chalked out a comprehensive strategy that includes launching new products, fine-tuning the existing ones, entering new markets, expanding the agency force, opening new branches in select cities and augmenting the ad spend. The company, sometime back, had also automated its underwriting activities by installing a common operating system.

So, why this sudden animation? "All these days we have been investing in our people and technology. Now we are on the verge of taking off," says MetLife India managing director Venkatesh S Mysore. In line with the performance and expectations, the company's capital base will be expanded by Rs 50 crore to Rs 160 crore. Till July this fiscal, MetLife India had booked a premium of Rs 4 crore.