Birla Sun Life eyes Rs 800 cr premium income

Birla Sun Life Insurance (BSLI) is targeting a 62 per cent growth in premium income at Rs 800 crore for the current year. The private sector joint venture insurance company has also firmed up plans to launch six additional unit linked products. It also proposes to expand its presence to 33 cities in the country.

"We are planning to add another 5,000 life advisors to our team this year. These would help us achieve our target for this fiscal," explained, Nani Javeri, chief executive officer BSLI.

Javeri was speaking at the sidelines of a seminar to educate women on concepts of insurance, investment planning and career opportunities. "The company plans to launch unit linked schemes which would be for the masses as opposed to its existing unit linked products that are targeted at specific segments," explained Javeri.

The CEO also informed that the Birlas, who hold 74 per cent in the company, were ready to reduce their stake to 51 per cent and that Sun Life has agreed to pick up the additional stake in the company. "Insurance being a capital intensive business, a equitable holding from both the partners would benefit the company as well as the industry," he added.

Javeri said BSLI has clocked a 140 per cent growth in premium income for the first five months of the current fiscal and was expecting a similar growth for the next few months.

Elaborating the companies expansion plan, Javeri said: "We would set up 11 new branches by December end which would take the total number of branches to 44 and our presence will increase to 33 cities."

On alternate channels, he said: "BSLI was expecting 33 per cent of premium income to come from the bancassurance and the corporate agency route, which stood at 24 per cent at present."