Bharti AXA General Insurance Company, a 74:26 joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and AXA group, aims to focus on commercial lines of business for boosting profitability and achieving break-even by December 2014.
According to Amarnath Ananthanaryanan, CEO and Managing Director, the company would aim to grow its commercial lines of business to 20 per cent of its total portfolio by 2014 from the present 8 per cent.
“The low premiums discouraged us from focusing on the commercial lines of business so far. However, now with reinsurance stepping in and the industry having deductibles in force, pricing has become attractive so we plan to grow this business,” Ananthanarayanan said here on Monday.
The general insurer will focus on marine and project insurance and package policies. “We want to focus on the SME segment by leveraging the technical capabilities of our risk engineering team,” he said.
Currently, motor insurance accounts for almost 70 per cent of its total portfolio while health accounts for about 18 per cent. Once the share of commercial lines of business increases to 20 per cent that of motor insurance is likely to shrink to 60 per cent, he said.
The company has sought IRDA’s approval for coming up with new health and unemployment insurance products in the future. “We will launch these products once we receive IRDA approval,” he said.
Capital infusion
Bharti AXA would require Rs 150-200 crore of fresh capital in the next two years to fund its growth needs. The company’s capital base currently stands at Rs 850 crore, which includes the recent capital infusion of around Rs 60 crore by the promoters. The company has crossed Rs 1,000 crore in gross written premium and sold two million policies.