Ten-year-old Shriram General Insurance (SGI) is now taking a “strategic bet” to expand its footprint in ‘C’ and ‘D’ class cities, with plans to open 50 new branches over the next 12 months, a top official said.

After this expansion, the private general insurer expects 25 per cent of its overall revenues to come from ‘C’ and ‘D’ class cities in 2019-20. At present, in terms of revenues, ‘C’ cities bring only 10 per cent of overall revenues.

This proposed expansion, which is expected in the next 12 months, will take the company’s overall branch network to about 210 branches from the current level of 162, taking the share of ‘C’ and ‘D’ cities in overall branch network to about 50 per cent, Neeraj Prakash, Managing Director, SGI, told BusinessLine .

As on date, SGI has only about 47 branches in ‘C’ cities, accounting for 27 per cent share of the overall branch network. Most of the expansion into ‘C’ and ‘D’ cities will happen in eastern India and in Gujarat and Maharashtra, said Prakash.

While ‘D’ class cities are those with a population up to 15,000 people, ‘C’ class cities have a population ranging between 15,000 and 50,000.

SGI, in which South Africa’s Sanlam Group has a 23 per cent stake and the rest with Shriram Capital, is the fifth-largest general insurer by profits among private general insurers in India.

In 2017-18, SGI recorded a net profit of about ₹400 crore on gross written premium of ₹2,100 crore. “Our aim is to grow in a sustainable manner. We are not going to chase the topline, but look for quality business and grow profitably. We are also confident that we will surpass last year’s profit this fiscal,” he said.

In ‘C’ and ‘D’ class cities, the private general insurer will focus on selling two-wheeler, commercial vehicle and business protection (for tiny units and shops) products. “It is not very profitable for us to go there (C and D class cities). But we expect it to give us a good name. Definitely when we are earning from the society, it is also our duty to give back some to society,” said Prakash.

IPO, capital

Asked if SGI will go in for listing, or an IPO anytime soon, Prakash said: “Right now, we have not decided anything on this.” He also said that SGI was not looking to raise further capital this year, as it was quite comfortable on the capital front.

SGI will, next year, look to recruit 5,000 new employees, and increase the IRDAI-registered agents by 7,000 in 2019-20 so that the total number of agents goes up to 25,000.

Currently, SGI has 17,000 IRDAI-registered agents, which will go up to 18,000 by the end of this financial year.

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