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Bharti AXA Life Insurance on Monday said that the company registered 10 per cent growth in its renewal premium to ₹594 core in the first half of the financial year 2020-21 from ₹541 crore in the corresponding fiscal period a year ago.
However, due to the Covid-19 crisis and subsequent disruptions, the company’s new business premium income fell 23.37 per cent to ₹318 crore (₹415 crore).
Total premium income fell 4.6 per cent to ₹912 crore in the April-September period of this fiscal from ₹956 crore in the first six months of the last financial year.
The company recorded a surge of 25 per cent in its asset under management at ₹7,987 crore in the first half of 2020-21 against ₹6,404 crore in the corresponding period of the last fiscal.
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Commenting on the company’s business performance in the first half of the current financial year, Parag Raja, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Bharti AXA Life Insurance, said in a statement, “The spread of Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the economy and the business sentiment in the short-term. Despite the challenging macro-environment affecting the new business adversely, we registered steady performance on many parameters and achieved double-digit growth in the renewal premium collection in the first six months of the current financial year. Further, our asset under management saw a strong growth amid the slowdown triggered by the Covid uncertainty. With the economic activities picking up after the easing of restrictions, we are confident about our business recovery and growth in the second half of this fiscal.”
Expansion plans
Bharti AXA Life Insurance, which has 261 branches and 36,526 advisors, plans to expand its distribution footprints across the country and strengthen its multi-channel architecture.
“We are also looking at potential enhancements to the customer experience and additional opportunities for growth and scalability, apart from creating awareness about life insurance and capitalising on growth opportunities,” Raja said.
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Raja said that the ongoing pandemic has invigorated the awareness about life insurance across India and made protection a stronger segment for the future financial security of the people.
“Our long-term outlook towards the life insurance business remains positive. We are building a robust and digitally-enabled frame of operations to adapt to the new normal. In addition to our robust digital architecture for seamless and smoother services to the customers, we are also very sensitive and focused about claims management in these critical and challenging times to ensure customer satisfaction,” Raja added.
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