 "United India Insurance eyes Rs 11,000-cr premia this year")
The company collected premia of Rs 9,709-crore for year-ended March 31, 2014, which was up Rs 443 crore compared to the previous year, according to the company.
Announcing the financial results for 2013-14, Milind Kharat, CMD, said the company is targeting a gross premia of around Rs 11,000 crore, and the company grew despite macroeconomic conditions.
More From This Section
Net profit last year was around Rs 528 crore and the market value of the company’s total investment portfolio was Rs 21,545 crore as against Rs 19,950 crore last year. The investment income stood at Rs 1,857 crore and net worth grew to around Rs 5,361 crore as against Rs 4,952.63 crore during the previous year.
The company had reduced the claims ratio to 82.56 per cent for the fiscal 2013-14 as against 84.61 per cent in 2012-13, owing to the underwriting practices and control measures. Insured losses due to the Uttarakhand floods was at an estimated Rs 1,500 crore. .
“Of the reported 157 claims with an estimated loss of Rs 824 crore, 135 claims have been fully paid,” said the company about the Uttarakhand flood loss claims.
United India has a network of 2,242 offices, including 1,114 micro offices in remote locations, with a staff strength of 16,907 and plans are afoot to increase the number of agents from the present 66,500 to 800,000 this year. In addition to this, there are 193 micro insurance agents in rural areas.
In the present fiscal, it plans to open two new regional offices, one each in Chhattisgarh and another one in Puducherry. The company, which recruited 303 officers and 600 employees last year, is planning to recruit 400 officers and 13,500 agents in the present year.
It has launched a new health and motor insurance policy. It is also planing to launch a redesigned family medicare policy soon and is working on new health products like low-cost health insurance.
“The company will shortly launch an insurance product exclusively for the micro, small and medium enterprise sector, which would be the first-of-its-kind in the industry,” the company’s officials said. It also has online portals for eight retail insurance products, including motor, health, households, shopkeeper and crop insurance.