Private general insurer Bharti Axa General Insurance is looking to double its health insurance portfolio in 2011 to Rs 150 crore with at least 20 per cent coming from the policy portability to be effective from July 1 this year.

“We are looking at doubling our overall health portfolio this year (2011) from Rs 75 crore in 2010 which came from about 25,000 policies,” Dr Amarnath Ananthanarayanan, CEO, Bharti Axa General Insurance, told Business Line . About 20 per cent of the Rs 150-crore income this year is expected to come from health insurance policy portability, which is expected to come into effect from July 1.

“This year we have lot of regulatory changes in the general insurance space. While there are still some loopholes that need to be fixed, we think it would be beneficial as we are hoping to get some policies from competition through better customer service,” he added. “We are preparing ourselves to brace up to the new changes,” said Dr Ananthanarayanan.

Capital infusion

The company is expecting capital infusion of Rs 200 crore this year, “which will be split over the next three quarters,” he said. Bharti Axa GI received Rs 90-crore infusion in February, taking its capital base to Rs 550 crore. “We are expecting a 60 per cent growth this year over 2010's revenues of Rs 500 crore,” he added.

The loss ratio for Bharti Axa in the commercial lines of business, which is a bleeding portfolio for general insurers, is at 110 per cent; “there was a slight improvement last year because of increase in deductibles,” he said, however ruling out losses going down further since prices have not gone up as expected. “We will continue to stay out of the segment,” he added.

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