The company was able to reduce the underwriting losses in the fiscal compared to last fiscal, said Milind Kharat, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, United India Insurance Co Ltd. The year before last (2011-12), the underwriting losses were at around Rs 1222 crore while it has came down to Rs 1193 crore in 2012-13.
"We are targeting a premium of Rs 11,000 crore with a PAT of Rs 600 crore, in this fiscal year. We are also looking at starting the second wave of transformation for which the bid to select consultants has already been floated," said Kharat.
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He said that the insurance firm has already implemented recommendations of a first wave of transformation at varioud levels including the agencies and verticals like motor vehicle claims and bancassurance among others.
"We have seen result for the first wave of tranformation, like our market share has gone up and the growth has become higher than the competitors. Now we have seen that the verticals are not doing well. So we want to tranform the business," said Kharat.
Last time, the transformation was based on report of global consultant firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the company is expected to finalise the consultant for the second wave of transformation in a month's time.
Consulting firms including BCG, Ernst & Young, Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers and McKinsey are said to be bidding for the consultancy in the second wave, according to sources.
The insurance firm would continue to have focus on retail business through agents and current year it would add around 530 micro offfices. It would also increase focus on its Information Technology activities, including expansion of infokiosks and more issuance of policies online.
In the total premium of Rs 9,266 crore, the motor segment consists of 36.58% compared to 36.14% during the previous fiscal, Health portfolio consists of 28.52% compared to 27.29% and Fire portfolio of 12.10% as against 11.89%, said S Surenther, director and general manager, United India Insurance Co Ltd.
However, the market share of the company has come down to 13.46% during 2012-13, as against 14.93% during the previous fiscal year.
The company is looking at tie up with vehicle manufacturers and dealers in its motor insurance portfolio, while it would tie up with banks for the business of small and medium entreprenuers, mainly in fire and engineering policies, said Kharat.