Dai-ichi plans to raise investment in Indian venture

MUMBAI: Despite the shrinking life insurance sector in the country for the last three years, Dai-ichi, Japan's largest life insurer, has remained bullish on India's sector and is planning to grow its investment in the country.

The company, present in the country through a joint venture with Bank of India and Union Bank of India, also said that it was keen to increase its stake-holding in the venture.

The life insurance industry in the country has witnessed a degrowth by 25-30 per cent over the past three years in a row.

"I completely agree that India has witnessed some amount of degrowth in the life insurance industry in the recent past and it has a lot to do with the market conditions and various regulatory changes that we have seen here.

"I think right now it is the period of adjusting the life insurance industry in the country," Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company's global president Koichiro Watanabe told PTI here today.

"But that does not say all about the country's life insurance sector, which is full of growth potential...It is due to the strong structure, demographic condition and socio-economic condition prevailing in the country. So, I am of the firm belief that the industry here will grow like anything in future," he said.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a CSR activity of the Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company.

"We have built a trust-based relationship with both of our bank partners in the country. We have also developed very good trust base with our staff here. Now, from this stage, we are geared up to achieve real growth in future," he said.

The company wants to be among the top five life insurers in the world by 2020, he said adding, "We decided to increase our shareholding in India venture, which simply means that we want to continue our business in India and we want to strengthen our relationship here."

The company is currently in the last stage of discussion for further investment plan here, he said.