'Private General insurers are poised to grow at 17 - 18 per cent over the next 5 to 7 years and we will grow faster.'
Private sector general insurer Future Generali India Insurance plans to focus on the underpenetrated non-motor, non-health space to support growth.
Anup Rau, the MD & CEO of the company, discusses the company's expansion plans in a video interview with Aathira Varier/Business Standard.
What are the growth plans of Future Generali India Insurance in FY25?
At Future Generali, we have grown our overall business by 11 per cent on a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis from April to February FY24.
We are closing the financial year 2023-24 with a Gross Written Premium (GWP) of about Rs 5,000 crore and we plan to grow by 20 per cent and touch Rs 6,000 crore in FY25.
If you look at our growth, then it has been fairly diversified across multiple segments, with no single segment dominating our business.
We are not overly dependent on a single channel, a single distributor, or a single customer segment.
Since we are truly well distributed, it makes us bulletproof.
These are promising times and the insurance industry is poised to grow. Insurance penetration in India is just 1 per cent of the GDP.
According to Swiss Re and other studies, India is the 10th largest insurance market in the world, and poised to grow and become the 6th largest by 2032.
Private General insurers are poised to grow at 17 per cent - 18 per cent over the next 5 to 7 years and we will grow faster.
We will grow at about 20 per cent over the next few years.
Which segment are you focussing on for growth?
Certain segments such as retail health could grow slightly faster on the new business side because of the lower penetration and steady rise in demand.
We, as a company, want to make sure that we stand for the non-motor business. So, we will see that segment grow significantly.
The other segment we are actually going after in the non-motor, non-health space is the commercial side which includes shopkeeper's insurance, small cover segments of Rs 5 crore or so, fire and engineering insurance and so on and so forth.
What are your expansion plans on the distribution front?
We have been steadily expanding our agency channel, which has more than tripled now in the last five years.
So, we are keen on expanding distribution. We are consistently working on marketing and a lot of it is led by distribution.
Our plans to grow the distribution will be in line with our ambition of achieving 20 per cent growth going forward.
So far as distribution partnerships are concerned, it is a continuous process. In FY25, a lot of partnerships are going to open up for renewals. So, we will see accordingly.
Recently, Irdai proposed increasing mandatory coverage across health, motor, and other segments. What is your take on that?
There have been discussions on increasing insurance penetration in terms of rural and social obligations.
The regulator wants a greater onus to be on the companies to actually fulfil greater rural and social obligations.
It is a step in the right direction. In the initial years it is going to be expensive. However, it will help deepen the market in the long term.
It is actually good that insurers can move beyond the top 200 cities of India.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
