Mumbai: Max India rose 9.77 per cent to Rs 170.25 after posting a 257.2 per cent year-on-year (YoY) jump in net profit to Rs 13.61 crore in Q1 FY09. The net sales for the quarter increased 89.6 per cent YoY to Rs 91.52 crore. The company announced the results after market hours on July 18 (Friday).
The stock gained further momentum on reports that the company has increased the ‘economic interest’ in its life insurance joint venture company, Max New York Life, from 50 per cent to 74 per cent. New York Life Insurance holds the remaining 26 per cent.
Source: Business Standard
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
HOUSEHOLDER POLICY PREMIUMS FALL 35-50%
Mumbai: The next time you buy a householder's insurance policy, you could be paying premiums that are 35 to 50 per cent lower. This is the result of the de-tariffing or lifting of price controls on insurance policies from January this year. Thanks to the growing competition, the four public sector insurers, which account for over one-third of the market, are working hard to retain customers and win new ones by halving premiums for customers with a good claim record.
The dozen private non-life insurers have, however, cut premiums only 10 to 15 per cent for individuals and housing societies.
"The discount on a householder's insurance policy is more than 35 per cent," said V Ramasaamy, chairman and managing director of National Insurance, India's second largest general insurance company.
An official of Delhi-headquartered Oriental Insurance added that in addition to an annual policy, it is offering a four-year householder's policy.
Oriental Insurance's new policies are a case in point. The insurer is offering a 25 per cent discount on the basic policy plus an in-built discount of around 7.5 per cent, if you buy the policy for more than two years.
There is also a loyalty discount of 5 per cent in the first year, 10 per cent in the second year and 15 per cent from the third year on, provided there are no claims. Oriental offers a further discount of 10 to 15 per cent if you choose more than four sections.
Private sector companies like Bajaj Allianz and ICICI Lombard claim that reducing the premiums by more than 10 or 15 per cent is difficult.
Said T A Ramalingam, head of underwriting, Bajaj Allianz Non-Life: "Householder's policy is profitable for the public sector so it can be aggressive on pricing. We cannot do so because our risk perception of this business is different."
Source: Business Standard
HEALTH INSURANCE FOR ARTISANS
New Delhi: The government on Monday day said about 40 lakh artisans would be provided health insurance coverage under the Rajiv Gandhi Shilpi Swasthya Bima Yojna over a period of five years. Under the scheme, there is a provision of medical expenses being reimbursed to the beneficiaries, subject to an annual limit of Rs 15,000 per family. This was announced by ShankarSingh Vaghela, textiles minister.
Source: PTI, The Tribune, Hindustan Times,
Source: PTI, The Tribune, Hindustan Times,
EPF MAY ATTRACT MORE INTEREST THIS YEAR
New Delhi: Subscribers to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) may earn at least a marginally higher payout for 2008-09 than the 8.5% they received in 2006-07 and 2007-08, but only if do not withdraw their funds mid-year.
Interest yields on deposits have moved up to 9-9.5% of late, but the government has continued to borrow from the EPF’s investments at 8.5%. “Fresh investments are likely to attract a higher interest rate. But the actual increase in earnings, which is likely to be only marginally higher, will only be computed at the end of the year before it shows up on subscriber payout,” sources told ET.
Earlier this year, the EPFO formalised the norm for paying last year’s interest rates to subscribers on mid-year withdrawals, in the event that the current year’s payout rate had not yet been approved by the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) and declared by the government.
In earlier years, while this was the normal practice followed — irrespective of whether the interest payout rate finally declared for the fiscal was higher or lower, it was not official practice. In the event, it could be challenged by subscribers who received a lower interest rate for mid-year withdrawals against a higher rate declared later for the running fiscal.
Current estimates of EPFO earnings during 2008-09 are pegged at around Rs 10,552 crore. If it has to fork out even 8.5% interest to its about four crore subscribers this year, the EPFO management estimates a deficit of Rs 139 crore. But the calculations were made with 8.5% yield on investments as the basis. At 8.5% interest yield, the returns are currently nil. In 2007-08, returns on investments made by the sole fund manager SBI only allowed 8.25% interest payout at a deficit of Rs 263.78 crore.
But any increase in yield on investments this year will only be marginal since they will not show up in a good chunk of EPF’s investments. A substantial portion (Rs 53,570 crore) of the EPF corpus of over Rs 1.55 lakh crore (as on March 31, 2007 at the face value excluding the balance lying in the public account) is invested in the Special Deposit Scheme (SDS), and earns an interest yield of only 8%. The interest rate for SDS deposits has stayed frozen since 2003 despite several demands from the EPF’s trustees and political pressure to hike the interest rate.
Source: Mumbai Mirror, The Economic Times
Interest yields on deposits have moved up to 9-9.5% of late, but the government has continued to borrow from the EPF’s investments at 8.5%. “Fresh investments are likely to attract a higher interest rate. But the actual increase in earnings, which is likely to be only marginally higher, will only be computed at the end of the year before it shows up on subscriber payout,” sources told ET.
Earlier this year, the EPFO formalised the norm for paying last year’s interest rates to subscribers on mid-year withdrawals, in the event that the current year’s payout rate had not yet been approved by the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) and declared by the government.
In earlier years, while this was the normal practice followed — irrespective of whether the interest payout rate finally declared for the fiscal was higher or lower, it was not official practice. In the event, it could be challenged by subscribers who received a lower interest rate for mid-year withdrawals against a higher rate declared later for the running fiscal.
Current estimates of EPFO earnings during 2008-09 are pegged at around Rs 10,552 crore. If it has to fork out even 8.5% interest to its about four crore subscribers this year, the EPFO management estimates a deficit of Rs 139 crore. But the calculations were made with 8.5% yield on investments as the basis. At 8.5% interest yield, the returns are currently nil. In 2007-08, returns on investments made by the sole fund manager SBI only allowed 8.25% interest payout at a deficit of Rs 263.78 crore.
But any increase in yield on investments this year will only be marginal since they will not show up in a good chunk of EPF’s investments. A substantial portion (Rs 53,570 crore) of the EPF corpus of over Rs 1.55 lakh crore (as on March 31, 2007 at the face value excluding the balance lying in the public account) is invested in the Special Deposit Scheme (SDS), and earns an interest yield of only 8%. The interest rate for SDS deposits has stayed frozen since 2003 despite several demands from the EPF’s trustees and political pressure to hike the interest rate.
Source: Mumbai Mirror, The Economic Times
7 PVT FIRMS ON LIST TO MANAGE PF CORPUS
New Delhi: Amid strong opposition from trade unions, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has shortlisted seven private sector companies to manage its large corpus of Rs 2,40,000 crore. They include Reliance, HDFC, ICICI Prudential, Templeton, HSBC and the Tatas.
An UTI subsidiary, State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank are the only public sector entities keen on the provident fund business against the minimum of three slots for the fund managers. "If we limit the business to the PSU players, where will the competition come from," asked an official.
Ten firms have cleared the technical bids, while the financial bids would be opened next week, he said. The Central Board of Trustees (CBT) would take the final call notwithstanding opposition from the trade unions.
The entire EPFO corpus is presently being managed by SBI. On top of Rs 2,40,000 crore, an incremental deposit of Rs 25,000 crore comes year. According to estimates, 70-75 per cent of EPFO's deposits are invested in the Special Deposit Schemes (SDS) of government, earning an interest of 8 per cent since 2002.
The estimated earnings of EPFO during 2008-09 would be about Rs 10,552 crore. For maintaining 8.5 per cent interest rate for this financial year as well, the EPFO management would have to make up a deficit of Rs 139 crore.
Source: PTI, Business Standard, The Times of India, The Statesman
An UTI subsidiary, State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank are the only public sector entities keen on the provident fund business against the minimum of three slots for the fund managers. "If we limit the business to the PSU players, where will the competition come from," asked an official.
Ten firms have cleared the technical bids, while the financial bids would be opened next week, he said. The Central Board of Trustees (CBT) would take the final call notwithstanding opposition from the trade unions.
The entire EPFO corpus is presently being managed by SBI. On top of Rs 2,40,000 crore, an incremental deposit of Rs 25,000 crore comes year. According to estimates, 70-75 per cent of EPFO's deposits are invested in the Special Deposit Schemes (SDS) of government, earning an interest of 8 per cent since 2002.
The estimated earnings of EPFO during 2008-09 would be about Rs 10,552 crore. For maintaining 8.5 per cent interest rate for this financial year as well, the EPFO management would have to make up a deficit of Rs 139 crore.
Source: PTI, Business Standard, The Times of India, The Statesman
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