Bharati AXA to tap Airtel customer base for insurance

In order to tap the life insurance market of Uttar Pradesh, Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Ltd, a joint venture between the Bharti Enterprises and global insurance major AXA Group, is keen to leverage the existing client and distribution base of mobile services provider, Bharti Airtel in the state.

“Bharti Airtel has about 4 million customers across Uttar Pradesh, which we will try to bring under our life insurance services in the initial phase. The company would extend presence in the city through Airtel Relationship Centres (ARCs), where Bharti Airtel customers will have access to our range of life insurance services and quality advice on financial protection,” Nitin Chopra, chief executive officer (CEO) of Bharti AXA Life Insurance told Business Standard.

The company opened its first branch office in Lucknow today and plans to establish its presence in 9 major cities in the state, including Kanpur, Agra, Varanasi, Allahabad and Bareily by the end of the current financial year.

“About 200 customers walk daily into each of our ARC. This adds to about 200,000 customers daily as we have a total of 1,000 ARCs across the country. In Lucknow, we hope to have our presence in 9 ARCs by August and aim to expand to all the ARCs in the city by the end of this year,” Chopra said.

Presently there are about 95 ARCs in the state.

“We expect at least 10 per cent business share from the state,” Chopra added.

The life insurance industry collected weighted new premium income of Rs. 75, 000 crores in 2006-07, exhibiting a growth of 114% over the previous year.

However, with an insurable population estimated to be around 300 million, the current penetration rate is only 22 per cent.

The company’s business centre, which was already operational in the state since March this year, has till date insured about 700-800 lives providing about 1,000 policies in total.

“We have done policies worth approximately of Rs 7,000,000 from Lucknow,” informed Sudhakar Saxena, branch sales manager, Lucknow.

The company opened its first branch office in Hyderabad, last August. At present it has operations at 23 locations through 12 branches across the country. 74 per cent stake of the joint venture is held by Bharti and the remaining 26 per cent by AXA Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd (APH).

Source: Business Standard

MetLife hiking capital to fund expansion

Company announces bancassurance tie up with Barclays Bank

Mumbai, July 11 MetLife India Insurance Company will hike its capital base by around Rs 200 crore taking it to Rs 731 crore.
Mr Rajesh Relan, Managing Director, MetLife, said the capital would fund the company’s expansion in India.
“Capital efficiency is more important than capital utilisation. Raising capital will be one of the biggest challenges for insurance companies going ahead,” Mr Relan said.
He said that insurance companies were talking to regulators about using hybrid instruments for raising capital. Mr Relan, who took over as Managing Director of MetLife in September 2006, is pushing bancassurance as a distribution channel. He was earlier the head of bancassurance at Aviva Life Insurance.
The company today announced a bancassurance tie up with Barclays Bank. Through this tie-up, the bank hopes to tap high networth individuals. “Around 48 per cent of our business comes from bancassurance, which was at around 35 per cent last year. However, agency will remain the mainstay for the company,” Mr Relan said.
For MetLife, the coveted bancassurance tie up with UTI Bank, which was toughly contested for by other insurance companies, now brings in around 30 per cent of the company’s total business. The company has three other bancassurance tie ups with J&K Bank, Karnataka Bank and Dhanalakshmi Bank.
MetLife insurance is expanding its distribution network. The agency force, which increased from 8,000 to 25,000 in 2006-07, will be expanded to 40,000 this fiscal, Mr Relan said.
MetLife reported new business premium of around Rs 344 crore in 2006-07, against Rs 142.63 crore in the previous fiscal. The company’s market share has increased from 1.3 per cent to 2.5 per cent in the recently concluded fiscal.
On when MetLife would break-even, Mr Relan said that it would depend on when the renewal premium overtakes new business premium.
MetLife’s product portfolio is dominated by Unit Linked Insurance Plans, which contributes 94 per cent of the company’s business.
Mr Relan hopes to end the year with Rs 600-crore of new business premium, which would be a growth of almost 100 per cent.

Source: The Hindu Business Line