Dear All,
India's
largest general insurance company New India Assurance today posted a net profit
of Rs 518 crore for the third quarter ended 31 December, 2012. In the same
period in 2011, the public general insurer has posted a net loss of Rs 178
crore owing to global catastrophic events like the Thailand Floods.
"We have seen a positive growth since
there have been no major natural catastrophic events in the recent past,"
said G Srinivasan, CMD of New India Assurance. The total gross direct premium incomeof the company for the nine months ended
31 December 2012 stood at Rs 8512 crore, seeing a growth of 18.18% over
previous year. India contributed Rs 7216 crore to this kitty and Rs 1305 crore
premium income was contributed from locations outside India.
Srinivasan said that
New India Assurance has set a target of Rs 12,000 crore as premium income for
the current fiscal, with about Rs 2000 crore from international operations and
the rest from India. He added that the company was also looking to expand in
areas like micro insurance. "We have set up 160 micro-offices in the last
three months and would add another 300 offices by the end of this fiscal,"
he said. The company already has 500 micro offices and recently launched a
micro insurance product 'Jan Suraksha Laghu Bima Yojana'.
New India Assurance
also saw a reduction in its underwriting losses which stood at Rs 1470 crore
for nine months ended 31 December 2012, compared to Rs 1786 crore in same
period in 2011. The combined ratio (sum of claims ratio and expense ratio) of
the company for nine months ended December 2012 stood at 121% as compared to
129% in 2011. Incurred claims stood at 88.81% at the end of December
2012, as compared to 93.29% at the end of December 2011.
The investment income
of the company stood at Rs 2055 crore for the nine months ended December 2012
compared to Rs 1709.14 crore in the same period previous year. The net worth of
New India Assurance stood at Rs 7601 crore for period ended 31 December 2012
compared to Rs 6740 crore in the same period in 2011.
Srinivasan also said
that New India Assurance, alongwith the other three public general insurers is
looking to get an in-principle approval from Insurance Regulatory and
Development Authority (Irda) to set up an in-house third party administrator
(TPA). Each insurer would approximately spend Rs 50 crore and a total of Rs 200
crore has been budgeted for this purpose for the next three years. General
Insurance Corporation of India (GIC) would also be a part of this venture.
Srinivasan further added that they were also in talks with Life Insurance
Corporation of India (LIC), for the latter being a part of this TPA.
.........EDITOR
