Aviva Life Insurance targets to treble its business to over Rs 70 crore (Rs 700 million) and hire 2,000 more people this fiscal while targeting to be among the top six life insurers within a few years.

The 74:26 joint venture between Dabur and Aviva Plc intends to foray into pension sector in a big way and aims to break-even within 6-7 years, its CEO Stuart Purdy told PTI.

Aviva Life has sold 22,000 policies for a premium income of Rs 27.43 crore (Rs 274 million) with a total sum assured of Rs 385 crore (Rs 3.85 billion).

"Our first year of operation was pretty encouraging. We expect to more than double or treble the premium income this fiscal. We want to see that Aviva is among the top six private players," he said.

The Aviva Life chief said it was potentially possible for the company to break-even in five years but it aims to do it within 6-7 years as it was more focused on retail segment rather than going for single premium and group schemes.

Dabur and Aviva Plc would infuse another Rs 45 crore (Rs 450 million) in the company by January to fuel growth.

"We will employ 2,000 more people including financial planners and 50 professionals for its Delhi head office this fiscal," Purdy said. The company currently has 2,000 odd people.

Bullish about the Indian insurance market, Purdy said the Aviva group feels that Indian market has great potential with a high savings rate and a low spend on insurance.

"The private players could have moved faster. Yet, we feel the private players will acquire half of the market share especially through bancassurance tie ups with banks," he said.

Aviva has tied up with ABN Amro Bank, American Express Bank, Canara Bank and Lakshmi Vilas Bank.

Purdy said the company was talking to one or two more PSU and private banks for such tie-ups.

Currently, private players including Prudential ICICI Life, Max New York Life, Birla Sunlife, HDFC Standard Life, SBI Life, Tata AIG Life, Bajaj Allianz Life, Metlife, OM Kotak Life, ING Vysya Life and AMP Sanmar Life have about 9-10 per cent market share.

Purdy said the private companies could increase their market share to 50 per cent in the next 10 years while Life Insurance Corporation will continue to dominate with the remaining 50 per cent.