LIC reports 41.48% growth in April

Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has sold 6,89,055 policies during the April month - a 41.48% growth in premium at Rs 1,023 crore.

The private players in the life insurance industry grew by an impressive 44% with premium income from new business at Rs 1,260 crore in April, according to data compiled by the insurance regulatory and development authority (IRDA).

LIC has bettered its market share from the last month's 78% to 81.17% in April despite stiff competition from the private sector.

Thirteen private players underwrote a first year premium of Rs 237 crore in April 2005 and a market pie of 18.83%, marginally improving their marketshare from little over 17% in the previous month.

ICICI Prudential led the private pack with a market pie of 5.69% after mobilsing Rs 71.6 crore in premium, followed by HDFC Standard (2.41%), Bajaj Allianz (2.31%), Tata AIG (2.18%) and Birla Sunlife (1.44%).

HDFC Standard mopped up Rs 30 crore in premium, while Bajaj Allianz collected Rs 29 crore, Tata AIG (Rs 27 crore) and Birla Sunlife (Rs 18 crore).

Max New York Life had new business of Rs 16 crore (1.27%), followed by SBI Life's Rs 13 crore (1.04%).

The market shares of Aviva, AMP Sanmar, Kotak Mahindra Old
Mutual, Met Life, ING Vysya and Sahara Life were less than 1% each.

In terms of policies underwritten, LIC's marketshare came down slightly to 83.99% in April 2005 from 86.62% in April 2004 while the new players increased their share to 16.01 from 13.38%.

LIC, with its stronghold in semi-urban and rural areas, sold  6,89,055 new policies compared to 1,31,377 policies by the 13 private players taken together.

But in terms of group insurance policies, private players outplayed LIC by capturing 52% of the marketshare.

LIC covered 1,50,697 lives and had a market pie of 48% in April this fiscal.

Tata AIG climbed to the top slot among private players in this regard with a share of 25.53%, followed by SBI Life (5.26%), AMP Sanmar (5.14%), Met Life (4.03%) and HDFC Standard (3.53%).