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Mr K.A. Somasekharan, President and CEO

Radhika Menon

Mumbai, March 10 Bucking the industry trend, Reliance General Insurance, the third largest player in terms of gross premium, clocked a 125-per cent growth in business last year.

The non-life insurance market, reeling under falling prices (in fire and engineering policies) since the free pricing regime, has grown just 12 per cent this year, against 24 per cent in the previous year.

What has helped Reliance in outperforming the industry with such a large lead is its retail strategy, focusing on products such as motor and health insurance covers. The company’s gross premium which was just Rs 162 crore a couple of years ago, grew significantly to Rs 1,800 crore as on February 2008.

Mr K.A. Somasekharan, President and CEO, Reliance General Insurance said, “Our key growth drivers have been health, motor and property insurance, which contributed towards maximum growth in this financial year. We are concentrating mainly on the retail business.”

Motor insurance accounts for 60 per cent of the company’s portfolio while health and property insurance chipped in around 15 per cent, respectively.

In terms of gross written premium, Reliance General ranks third among the private companies, after ICICI Lombard and Bajaj Allianz. Close competitors, ICICI Lombard and Bajaj Allianz have grown at 11 and 30 per cent, respectively, during the first 10 months of the current fiscal.

Reliance General Insurance has significantly scaled up its operations in the past two years — post the de-merger of the Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani group.

“In the past two years, we have moved up from 15 offices to 200 operating offices and 14 regional offices. Similarly, in terms of manpower, we have grown from 160 to 3,000 employees,” Mr Somasekharan said. The company plans to continue with the growth momentum by adding 100 more offices next fiscal. Reliance General aims at reaching out to the ‘masses’ by opening most of its offices in Tier-II and -III cities. “We hope to tap new customers and unexplored markets by bringing out niche products that offer value for money,” Mr Somasekharan said.

Reliance will soon come out with a health product for senior citizens and householder’s policies. Once insurers are given the freedom to change the wordings of the policy (by April 1, 2008), Reliance General hopes to come out with new products.

“We are working on industry and customer-specific and rural products. Once the product detariffication happens, we are committed to bringing out customer-friendly covers and products,” he said. While growth has been the buzz word for the company, Mr Somasekharan said that the claims have also been contained. “By focusing on volumes, we have made sure that the claims don’t hit our balance sheet,” he said.

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