Liberty Videocon General Insurance eyes Rs 250 crore gross written premium this fiscal

MUMBAI: Private sector general insurer Liberty Videocon General Insurance aims to achieve gross written premium of Rs 250 crore in the current financial year, a top company official said. "We closed the last financial year with around Rs 130 crore of gross written premium. This fiscal, we hope to achieve Rs 250 crore," chief executive Roopam Asthana said.

According to the company, while 70 per cent of its premium last fiscal came from motor insurance segment, rest came from fire, engineering and health segments. "This fiscal, we aim to grow our health insurance pie to around 20 per cent of the overall premium," Asthana said. Being a new player in the general insurance space, the company is hopeful of significant rise in health insurance segment.

About the capital support that the general insurer will like to receive from the promoters, Asthana said it may be in the range of Rs 200-300 crore. "We have an initial capital base of around Rs 350 crore. For this fiscal, we may require a capital infusion of Rs 200-300 crore from promoters," he said.

Earlier, Asthana had said he would prefer the company to remain over-capitalised to encash opportunities that may arise due to economic recovery. Growth of the general insurance industry has slowed down to around 10 per cent in the last fiscal, from around 18 per cent in FY13. Fall in automobile sales and dearth of new infra projects during last fiscal hit the business. Liberty Videocon General Insurance company is a joint venture between Videocon Industries and the American Liberty Group.