Star Union Dai-ichi Life aims to double business in FY'11

MUMBAI: Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance aims to double its total premium collection to over Rs 1,000 crore in the current fiscal, a top company official said.

"In FY'10, our total premium collection was Rs 519 crore. This fiscal, we would like to achieve 100 per cent growth. We are aiming for a total premium collection of over Rs 1,000 crore in FY'11," Star Union Dai-ichi Life managing director and CEO Kamal Sahay told reporters here today.

In the last fiscal, the company's new premium collection was Rs 525.38 crore.

Star Union Dai-ichi Life is a three-way joint venture between two PSUs -- Bank of India and Union Bank of India -- and the Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Company, a leading Japanese company in the life insurance market.

The company also plans to sell its products through the agency channel, Sahay said.

"We are currently using the network of our two bank promoters to sell our products. We plan to go for the agency channel in a few locations, where the two banks do not have much presence," he said.

Launched in December 2008, the life insurance company plans to sell its products through the agency channel in Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern parts of the country. "We plan to hire 5,000 agents this year," Sahay said.

The company would focus more on traditional policies in the current fiscal, Sahay said.

"In terms of premium collection, our Ulip product contributes 96 per cent while the balance comes from traditional products. In this fiscal, we are planning to increase contribution of traditional products to 35 per cent," he said.

In FY'10, the life insurer issued 1,08,222 individual policies. The total number of individual policies issued by the company across rural areas in FY'10 was 26,290, which amounts to 24.7 per cent of the total number of policies issued.
According to a IRDA stipulation, an insurance company is required to issue 7 per cent of its total policies in the first year of its operations in rural areas.

In the last 12 months, the company settled 58 claims. In FY'10, its claims settlement ratio was 93.5 per cent.