Prudential sees big mart in India

India will become the biggest market in Asia for the UK-based Prudential Corporation Plc in three to four years despite a slower growth in premium collections of its joint venture "" ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company.

Dan Bardin, managing director, South Asia & Greater China, Prudential Corporation Asia, said: "We are at such a scale (of operations) that the growth rate will slow down."

Bardin, who has been with the Indian venture from the time of conception, will step down from the board to make way for Mark Norbom, CEO of Prudential Corporation Asia. Norbom's predecessor, Mark Tucker, resigned last year.

In his place, Kevin Holmgren, deputy managing director Prudential Corporation Asia, joined the board.

"I'm stepping down from the board so that I can better balance my time across the 10 Asian ventures, and spend quality time with CEOs of each company," Bardin said.

ICICI Prudential is today the largest private insurer in India, which is the fourth largest market for Prudential among the 12 Asian nations where it has operations.

As of today, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore are Prundential's top three markets. What is remarkable in the case of India is the fact that the joint venture is just three years old, whereas the Singapore entity is 70 years old and Hong Kong 40 years old, Bardin said.

"The gap between India and Singapore is not very wide, and India will become the biggest market for us in three to four years," he added.

The only exception could be China, which though has immense growth potential, the market there is opening up city by city.

Praising the Indian team as he steps down from the board of ICICI Prudential Life, Bardin said the venture's performance has exceeded expectations and the performance has been spectacular.

Bardin attributed the Indian success story to ICICI Prudential Life's multi-distributional strategy, wide array of products, and the Indian management team headed by Shikha Sharma.

Prudential Corporation hopes to be a key player in pensions once it is open to competition. "We as a group are well positioned to participate in the pension industry. Regulations have yet to come out and accordingly the group will decide whether to venture into pension through the life venture or asset management company," said Shikha Sharma, managing director, ICICI Prudential Life.