The Hindu Business Line : Bharti AXA Life debuts with ULIPs

Company's plans
Plans several points of presence through strategic partnerships
In-house training academy for personnel
To develop product architecture to cater to different segments

Hyderabad , Aug. 22

Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Ltd, the latest entrant into the life insurance segment, kicked off its operations by opening its first branch here on Tuesday. It is aiming to have several points of presence through strategic partnerships, its CEO, Mr Nitin Chopra, said.

"There are several strategic partnerships in the pipeline. One of the major partnerships would be with the private cellular major Bharti Airtel, which has a large customer base of over 25-million, and is growing at around a million new customers a month," he told newspersons.

Refusing to divulge the identity of the prospective strategic partnerships, he said, "The partnerships would range from financial intermediaries to non-financial intermediaries with strong customer base."

Expansion plans

"Besides the metros and mini metros, Bharti AXA will be well represented in the tier-II and upcountry markets. We have plans to roll out over 30 branches by December next year, which would be supplemented with other points of presence through strategic partnerships," Mr Chopra said.

Pan-India approach

Bharti AXA proposes to adopt a multi-channel, multi-product and a pan-India approach. The company has on Tuesday unveiled two unit-linked products - `Future Confident' targeted at the masses and `Wealth Confident' targeting the affluent segment.

According to Mr Chopra, the company has also submitted four more products with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) and is awaiting the regulator's clearance.

Stating that the joint venture partners have already pumped in Rs 100 crore of capital, Mr Chopra said the partners were committed to bring in an additional amount of Rs 400 crore over the next three years for the business expansion.

`High priority zones'

The Regional Chief Executive of AXA Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd, Mr Mark Pearson, said Asia is one of the high priority zones for AXA's business strategy. AXA expects significant business opportunities in the Indian insurance market, which has a very low insurance penetration at present.

Preferring not to outsource training of personnel, he said Bharti AXA would be setting up the AXA Academy for Insurance Personnel. "We prefer to have in-house training aimed at best training practices and management capabilities," Mr Pearson said.