Thursday, February 28, 2008

General Insurance sector logs growth of 12 per cent in January

The General Insurance industry grew by about 12 per cent during January with robust performance by private players like Reliance General and Cholamandalam. The 16 non-life insurers collected Rs 2,520 crore premium in January 2008, against Rs 2,253 crore in the same month last year, according to industry data. During the month, nine private sector general insurance companies garnered Rs 990 crore against Rs 811 crore in the same month a year-ago.

Reliance General increased its premium by 47.5 per cent to Rs 149 crore, Cholamandalam MS General Insurance premium grew by 65 per cent to Rs 48 crore in January. The largest player in the segment, ICICI Lombard collected Rs 278 crore against Rs 275 crore in January 2007. At the same time, four public sector non-life insurance companies collected Rs 1,467 crore against Rs 1,391 crore in the corresponding month a year ago.

In percentage terms, while the public sector could increase their premiums by just 5.4 per cent, nine private sector players clocked premium growth of 22 per cent. During the month, market leader New India Assurance premium collection grew by 6.7 per cent to Rs 451 crore as compared to Rs 422 crore in the year-ago period. However, Oriental Insurance posted a negative growth of 1.9 per cent to Rs 327 crore against Rs 333 crore in the same month last year. Private sector players' market share stood at 40 per cent as compared to the public sector's share of 60 per cent in the month.

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