ICICI Prudential Life Insurance on Monday said it will hike capital by Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) to Rs 575 crore (Rs 5.75 billion) by the end of this fiscal, after posting over 170 per cent jump in business till September.

"We will need one more tranche of Rs 50 crore of capital infusion in February next year. The promoters have infused Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) already in this fiscal," Shikha Sharma, CEO, ICICI Prudential Life, told reporters in New Delhi on Monday.

The capital base of the leading private insurer would surge to Rs 575 crore after the capital investment by the two promoters -- ICICI Bank and the United Kingdom-based Prudential Plc.

The company is open to hike foreign shareholding when government permits, although Sharma said it was upto promoters to decide on it.

Prudential has so far invested over Rs 130 crore (Rs 1.30 billion) in the Indian subsidiary.

The need for equity infusion in the company comes in the wake of a whopping 170 per cent rise in premium income to Rs 184 crore (Rs 1.84 billion) in the first half of this fiscal, from Rs 68 crore (Rs 680 million) in April-September 2002.

ICICI Prudential became the first insurer to sell over half a million policies, of which 14 per cent has been in the rural areas, Sharma said.

The 74:26 joint ventiure of ICICI Bank and Prudential has a market share of 34.7 per cent in individual businesses among the 12 private players.

The overall pie of ICICI Prudential is 3.0 per cent taking into consideration Life Insurance Corporation's lion share of 89 per cent.