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Rediff.com  » Business » Kotak Mahindra Old alters tack

Kotak Mahindra Old alters tack

By BS Banking Bureau in Mumbai
December 01, 2004 11:42 IST
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Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Ltd is changing its strategy with a new man at the top.

Gaurang Shah, who took over as managing director of the company, aims to garner 4 per cent market share in the life insurance market by 2006-07. It now has a minuscule presence with just 0.6 per cent market share.

"Our thrust will be on distribution. In any retail business distribition has to be the focus. We are almost doubling our sales managers' force, increasing the branch network and planning to tap more franchises," said a charged up, Gaurang Shah, managing director, Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Ltd.

Shah, a chartered accountant was earlier heading the retail loan business in the bank for over nine years before he was asked to take over as head of the life insurance venture at the beginning of this month.

When Shah joined the company it had a sales manager team of 350 officers, which was scaled up to 480 and is being taken to 600 by March 2005.

"Recruitment's are happening in all markets that we are present in i.e. in the top 20 cities in the country," said Shah.

Each of these sales managers will have about 25 life advisors under him. Twelve out of every 25 advisors sells a policy.

Shah aims to gain a foothold in the life insurance market with a 4 per cent market share and a share of 10 per cent among the private players by 2006-07.

If the Kotak group's asset management company can have 6 per cent market share so can we, he said.

Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance, which has sold 150,000 policies, has a small presence in the life insurance market with just 0.6 per cent market share and 3.1 per cent of the pie among the private insurers.

Shah was speaking at the sidelines of a press conference held to launch the company's third unit-linked insurance schemes. Kotak's new Flexi Plan is a unit linked plan offering savings plus life protection.

The company, which has 43 branches across 31 cities, plans to expand to 10 more cities by April. By fiscal end, Kotak Life Insurance is eyeing a premium income of Rs 315 crore (Rs 3.15 billion) more than double that recorded in Rs 126 crore (Rs 1.26 billion) in 2003-04.

Kotak Life Insurance is also planning to tap the over 300 franchises of the Kotak Securities which already hawks Kotak's mutual fund schemes.
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