Birla Sun eyes 80% rise in new premium income

Birla Sun Life Insurance has targeted a 80 per cent growth in first premium income for the current year at Rs 855 crore. Sum insured and number of policies sold are expected to grow at the same rate.

An official from the company said that the sum insured, which was around Rs 8,900 crore in 2003-04, was likely to touch Rs 16,000 crore this year. Number of policies sold on the other hand last year was around 15,000 last year.

The official said the process of offloading 25 per cent stake in favour of Sun Life "" its foreign joint venture partner would be initiated as soon as the finance bill was passed.

"The valuation of the stake being transferred would be evaluated by actuaries. Nevertheless, an in-principal decision on the stake transfer has already been passed by the promoters," said the official spokesperson of Birla Sun Life.

Talking on the equity infusion, she said Rs 80 crore would be injected as equity this year, thus enhancing the total paid-up capital of the company to Rs 370 crore.

"Our promoters would inject around Rs 30 crore soon, while another Rs 50 core would be injected towards the third and fourth quarter," she said.

Meanwhile, a survey conducted on behalf of the industry recently on brand recall showed the company has advanced one notch to the third position, while ICICI Pru and HDFC were first and second.

"The best thing about the outcome was Birla Sunlife's ad budget was eight largest among all private insurers with which it managed a third position," she added.