Thursday, June 17, 2010

Shriram Group to get bigger insurance biz overseas

Shriram Group plans to take its general insurance overseas by location up operations in countries such as Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. Shriram General Insurance is mulling a tie up with private equity or local partners for this function.

“We will take the general insurance business outside India. Now, we are piloting the business in the Philippines. By the finish of this year, we will have a incidence in Indonesia. We might soon have a company in Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand,” said Shriram group founder R Thyagarajan.

The group operates life and general insurance businesses from side to side a partnership with Sanlam of South Africa. The company will be infusing about Rs 100 crore as capital for the growth. The group will also instill Rs 100 crore in its life insurance business.

This is part of the company’s plan to get bigger business in the north-east region. Shriram Life Insurance will also aggressively use a distribution channel called ‘NEW’ (north east west), that seeks to target the “well to do” sector of the population.

The group announced annual results for its insurance businesses. Shriram Life Insurance recorded an increase of 48% per cent in annual premium equivalent (APE) during 2009-10. The company is targeting APE of Rs 1,500 crore within the next 5 years from the current Rs 284 crore. At the same time, Shriram General Insurance wrote gross premium of Rs 416.93 crore in its first full year of commercial operations. During the year the company made an underwriting profit of Rs 5.45 crore.

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