ICICI Lombard to insure Nacil's fleet for $ 9.1bn

MUMBAI: ICICI Lombard General Insurance has won the bid to insure NACIL's aircraft fleet for USD 9.1 billion, the first time as the lead insurer for the national air-carrier, a top company official said.

The UK's Chartis is the lead reinsurer for the deal. "We won the bid and completed the placement racing against a tight deadline. We submitted the bid on September 15, the bids were opened on the 16th and we got the final mandate on September 21," said ICICI Lombard's Head--Risk & Reinsurance, Rajive Kumaraswami.

It took three weeks for the placement to be completed in 2008 and, traditionally, it takes about a month for it to be completed, he said.

The national air-carrier had called for bids for a fresh cover as its earlier one of USD 8.9 billion was to expire on September 30.

ICICI Lombard, a joint venture between domestic financial services major, ICICI, and Canada's Fairfax Financial Holdings, won the bid competing against a New India Assurance-led consortium and another consortium led by Iffco Tokio.

"ICICI was a stand-alone bidder," Kumaraswami said. The other two bidders were as a part of consortia. The new insurance cover by NACIL comes in the backdrop of an air-crash at Mangalore recently which resulted in a loss of 158 lives.

The premium cover stands at USD 29.9 million, up from the earlier USD 24.30 million paid by the national air-carrier.