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Our Bureau

Mumbai , April 26

BIRLA Sun Life Insurance has ended 2004-05 with a 70 per cent increase in premium income at Rs 915.5 crore and plans to increase it to Rs 1,500 crore by the end of the current fiscal.

Annualised premium grew by 32 per cent to Rs 627.4 crore as compared to Rs 461.3 crore last year. Birla Sun Life has issued close to 2,00,000 lakh policies this year, taking the total number of policies to 3,77,240 and the total sum assured to Rs 22,715 crore.

The company said it has acquired a market share of 3.3 per cent and has thereby retained the number two position among private life insurers. The average premium per policy has grown to Rs 34,550 as compared to Rs 23,120 last year. The operating expenses, as a percentage of premium, declined to 19.4 per cent from last year's 26.9 per cent.

Premium income from the group's business has dropped from Rs 167 crore in 2003-04 to Rs 89 crore in 2004-2005. Mr Nani Javeri, CEO, said that the announcement of the fringe benefit tax disturbed the market for group life insurance. He said the group business is seeing competition in terms of pricing, but the market should sort it out.

Mr Javeri said that the single premium component in the business portfolio of private life insurers was as high and skewed as 60 per cent. While competitors might show as much as Rs 400 crore from single premium, Birla Sun Life has Rs 200 crore, he added.

He said 43 per cent of sales during 2004-05 came from bancassurance as against revenues from the direct sales force.

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