Biz school, ICICI Pru tie-up

Chennai Business School (CBS) had tied up with ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company to introduce a yearlong post graduate programme in Management and Insurance this academic year. The programme will be jointly developed by the two parties and students enrolling for the programme will be hired by ICICI Prudential after course completion.
The institute will also offer new specialisations in IT, telecom and marketing streams starting this academic year, according to Ms Minnie Menon, Associate Dean and Director of the institute. Currently, CBS offers a yearlong post graduate management programme in three specialisations - human resources, marketing and communications and retail (offered through a tie up with Pantaloon Retail, now a Future Group company).
Talking to Business Line on the sidelines of the graduation ceremony of CBS' first batch of students, Ms Menon said CBS would set up institutes in Mumbai, Bangalore and Bhubhaneshwar and courses would commence from August. All the new institutes would offer the programme in Management and Insurance. Additionally, the institutes at Mumbai and Bangalore would offer the retail stream of specialisation to students. Other streams available at the Chennai institute would be introduced at these centres.

Source: The Hindu Business Line

Max New York Life to open 150 branches

Firm eyes 100% growth in new assured premium biz.

With an aim to extend its reach, Max New York Life Insurance Company Ltd (MNYL), a leading life insurance company and a joint venture between ‘Max India Ltd’- one of India’s leading multi-business corporations and ‘New York Life’- a Fortune 100 company, is planning to open 150 new branches in major cities across the country during the present fiscal 2007-08.

The company is also eyeing 100 per cent growth in the new assured premium business in the current fiscal year.

Speaking to Business Standard, Rajender Sud, Senior Vice-President (West & South), MNYL, said, “We are planning to target those Indian cities where we have still no presence or not reached. As part of this, the company is planning to open 150 new branches in major cities across the country during the current fiscal year 2007-08. In Maharashtra, we will open branches in Jalgaon, Solapur, Sangli and Nanded.”

In 2006-07, MNYL sold 5.52 lakh policies in the country with the premium business of Rs 970 crore.

Out of which, 70,000 policies were sold in Maharashtra with Rs 146 crore premium business. In 2005-06, the company had sold 4.23 lakh policies in the country with Rs 536 crore premium income.

Informing about the company’s new products, Sud said, “The company has introduced 28 products so far. In the current fiscal, we are planning to launch new products for children’s education and for long-term wealth creation for old age. With an aim to make the working system more effective and facilitate both agents and customers, we are investing on the technology.”

Accordingly, our agents will not need to come to office. They will do work through Internet and get necessary official information through company's portal and we will make a separate portal for agents for the purpose. Our customers will also get the information they want about the products through Internet,” Sud said, but he avoided divulge financial details.

Source: Business Standard

Retail boom fuels parking insurance business

An increasing number of contractors managing parking lots at malls, multiplexes and five-star hotels are buying parking insurance covers. Insurance for parking lots is a novel concept in India and is likely to gain ground with parking getting more organised.

Brokers, who customise covers for contractors, said the retail boom had led to a demand for such covers over the last one year.

For instance, Hyatt Hotel in Delhi has outsourced parking management to Jupiter Security Services, which in turn has bought a cover from National Insurance Company.

In cities, large hotels and multiplexes outsource car parking management to contractors. Several foreign contractors such as Intertoll of South Africa, Tenaka of Malyasia, Tramell Crow and Knight Frank have entered India.

These contractors specialising in managing buildings, multiplexes, roads, and parkings lots have made standalone parking insurance popular. Third-party liability insurance so far would take care of any liabilities arising from damage to cars parked in the premises of malls and multiplexes.

Rahul Aggarwal, director & CEO, Optima Risk Management Services, said “Five-star hotels have premium cars parked in their parking lots. If a car is stolen, the contractor and the hotel owner are held liable for the theft. Similarly, if a car is damaged while parking, the contractor or the hotel owner are held liable for the damages. Visitors in large hotels are VIPs and are legally aware. Therefore, hotel owners, mall owners, multiplex owners ask contractors to buy parking insurance when they outsource the job.”

Parking insurance is a variation of a liability insurance policy. It covers the life of car owner whose car is parked inside the parking lot, any injury to the owner, damage to the patron’s vehicle, damage to a standing vehicle due to some other vehicle being parked, theft of a vehicle or its contents, death or injury to a patron while in the parking lot due to fire, explosion or collapse, etc.

The insurance also covers loss of income to the parking lot manager in case the lot is closed due to fire, explosion, collapse, flooding or digging/excavation work by municipal authorities, electricity supply companies, telephone companies, etc.

The primary insured is the contractor while the hotel/multiplex owner is the co-insured. For a five star hotel, the sum insured for a parking insurance cover ranges from Rs 4 to 5 crore. The premium ranges from 0.6 to 0.7 per cent of the sum insured. For a Rs 4 crore policy, the premium would be about Rs 2.5 lakh.

On the other hand, in a multiplex, the composition of the cars is diverse ranging from a Maruti 800 to a Mercedes so the risk is diversified and the sum insured is normally Rs 1-2 crore. At present, the four government-owned general insurance companies offer this cover.

Source: Business Standard

HDFC to finalise insurance partner

MUMBAI: HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh on Thursday said the housing finance major will finalise the partner for its general insurance business within a few weeks. "We don't want to make a second Chubb Corporation as partner for our general insurance business," Parekh said. HDFC had been approached by a couple of companies for picking up a stake in the general insurance venture. Since HDFC "did not want to make a mistake again", it would select its partner after due deliberation, he said. Asked his views on prevailing asset prices, Parekh said prices were softening. "However, HDFC has decided not to tweak its interest rates," he said. "We will wait for the credit policy in July and then look at the cost of funds before taking a decision, he added.

Source: PTI

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