Bajaj Allianz premium earning up 380%

Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance today reported a 380 per cent jump in first year premium to Rs 860 crore in 2004-05. This helped it jump to number two position among private life insurers from sixth at the end of March 2004.

At the end of March 2005, Bajaj Allianz's market share among private insurers more than doubled to 15.5 per cent from 7.3 per cent. The company's market size increased to 3.39 per cent from 0.95 per cent at the end of March 2004.

Its gross written premium reached Rs 1,001 crore, a 357 per cent increase over 2003-04. Bajaj Allianz Life chairman, Rahul Bajaj, said the stellar growth was possible because of very focused sales.

The company's CEO, Sam Ghosh, said capital utilization has been the most efficient amongst all private life insurance companies. Bajaj Allianz's paid-up capital of Rs 267 crore is one of the lowest amongst large private life insurance companies and it still generated new business worth Rs 860 crore and increased our distribution to 300 plus towns.

Bajaj Allianz also increased its product portfolio to 19 from 7 in 2004-05. It said the products are highly flexible and can be customised to the needs of varying categories of customers. Bajaj Allianz also launched a complete suite of employee benefit solutions during the year.