 "Liberty Videocon General Insurance to hire 200 people")
Private player-Liberty Videocon General Insurance, a joint venture between the Videocon Industries Ltd and US-based Liberty Citystate holding the PTE Ltd, is looking to hire 200 employees by the end of this fiscal year to undertake expansion. Having opened 20 branches across India, the company is planning to add 25 more branches by the end of 2014.
Speaking to Business Standard, Roopam Asthana, Chief Executive Officer & Director of Liberty Videocon General Insurance said, “Last year, we focused on establishing our presence in major metros in order to reach out to large institutional and retail audiences effectively. After consolidating our operations in those cities, we have now branched out in these new locations. We have been following a very steady strategy towards ramping up our distribution presence while taking care that we are able to meet our promises of superior service from these branches. Currently we have 20 branches and overall we are planning to have atleast 45 branches across India by the end of this calendar year. Since we are expanding, we need manpower to take care of expansion plan. So we would be hiring close to 200 people by the end of this year, besides new agents.. ”
He added that besides opening new branches, the distribution focus would be on auto dealers, agents and brokers with development of bancassurance and affinity capabilities. The Company has tied-up with 30 co-operative banks across the country to push its products.
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Having already garnered Rs. 100 crore premium, the company is hopeful to touch Rs. 120 crore as business premium by the end of this fiscal year. The company has 35 products in its portfolio and it is likely to add 5-7 products by the end of this year to widen its portfolio.The company's portfolio includes retail, which includes motor and health and commercial, which includes fire, engineering and group health insurance products.
He also added that the company may infuse fresh capital of Rs. 300 crore in the next quarter to maintain solvency ratio. The company started its operations with an initial capital of Rs 350 crore, which it claims to be one of the highest ever in the industry.
The general life insurance market in India is pegged at around Rs 70,000 crore as on March 2013 and is growing at the rate of 15% year-on-year. However, he added that this fiscal year,the growth would be low due to certain reasons and would be around 12-13%. On being asked about the reasons, he added, “ The slowdown in auto sector, low asset creation and low offtake of Industry projects may affect the growth.”