Bharti AXA Life's premium grows 28% in Apr-Dec

Private sector Bharti AXA Life Insurance registered a 28 per cent growth in its total premium to Rs 1,359 crore during the nine months to December of the current fiscal, and will focus on tier 2 and 3 cities next year to expand business, a top official said. The company's total premium stood at Rs 1,064 crore in the corresponding period of 2017-18.

The new business premium surged by 40 per cent to Rs 617 crore during April-December period of 2018-19, while renewal premium grew by 19 per cent to Rs 742 crore.

"We have outgrown the life insurance industry in the first nine months of this fiscal. We are confident of achieving a robust growth by the end of the current financial year," Bharti AXA Life Insurance MD and CEO Vikas Seth said.

The company expects to achieve a strong double-digit growth by this fiscal end.

The annualised new business premium grew 48 per cent to Rs 422 crore in the first nine months of 2018-19 as against Rs 286 crore in the same period last fiscal.

Bharti AXA Life Insurance, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and French insurance major AXA, saw its asset under management grow to Rs 5,264 crore as on December 31, 2018 from Rs 4,215 crore on December 31, 2017.

The company's new business premium stood at Rs 78.62 crore in February 2019, down by 0.98 per cent from year-ago period, as per data from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai).

However, the renewal premium grew by 29 per cent to Rs 111 crore during last month from Rs 86 crore in the same period of 2017-18.

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Its total gross written premium posted a growth of 15 per cent to Rs 190 crore during the month as compared to Rs 165 crore.

Seth said the company is focusing on tier 2 and tier 3 cities for its expansion drive in the next financial year with a focus on profitable growth.

It added 10,000 insurance advisors and set up 50 new branches across the country in the current financial year as part of its expansion plan.

"We plan to create a large pool of productive agents, strengthen our existing advisor base and reach out to every nook and corner of the country. Apart from strengthening our distribution bandwidth, we will also be strengthening our agency model for selling various insurance products and servicing customers efficiently," he added.

The company said it would focus on traditional products, agent productivity, cost-efficiency and channel and distribution diversification for pursuing its growth aspirations in times to come.