Life risk firms' new income rises

Life insurance companies' premium income from new business rose 105 per cent in November to Rs 2,841 crore from Rs 1,386 crore a year ago, according to data compiled by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda).

The growth was mainly on account of a sharp rise in first year premium income of the state-run Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India.

Premium income from new business of LIC grew 111 per cent on year in November to Rs 2,111 crore compared with private life insurance companies' growth of 90 per cent to Rs 730 crore.

LIC had a market share of 74.3 per cent in new business premium income in November compared with 72.3 per cent a year ago and 71.8 per cent in October.

Market share of private life insurance companies in new business in November stood at 25.7 per cent compared with 27.7 per cent a year ago and 28.2 per cent in October.

Among the private life insurance companies, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company returned to its number one position in November after being overtaken by ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company in the previous month.

Bajaj Allianz had a market share of 7 per cent in new business premium income in November compared with ICICI Prudential's 6.4 per cent.

Bajaj had new business premium income of Rs 198 crore in November, up 350 per cent from a year ago, while ICICI had a new business premium income of Rs 181 crore, up 59 per cent on year. India has 14 life insurance companies, including LIC.

The market share of the lone public sector life insurance firm LIC has been declining since the opening up of the sector to private companies in 2000.

LIC had a market share of 87 per cent in the number of life insurance policies sold in November. It sold 1.92 million policies in the month compared with 286,010 policies sold by private companies.

LIC's higher market share in the number of policies sold compared with premium income means private life insurers are cornering a larger share of high premium policies.

New business premium income of life insurance companies increased 46.4 per cent in the first eight months of 2005-06 (April-March) to Rs 16,604 crore.

The first year premium income of private life insurance companies during April-November grew 85.9 per cent from a year earlier to Rs 4,333 crore, while that of LIC increased 36.2 per cent to Rs 12,271 crore.