Birla Sun Life to infuse Rs 50 cr

The promoters of Birla Sun Life Insurance Company would infuse Rs 50 crore as capital to generate more business.

Director S K Mitra, who took charge recently, said the company was targeting Rs 2,500 crore premium income in 2006-07 and the current capital base of the outfit was not adequate for such premium income.

Irda has minimum capital adequacy norm for insurance companies operating here.

He said the company was targeting more than 100 per cent jump in premium income and the current capital of BSL would not be adequate for such growth.

The company currently have a capital base of Rs 520 crore. "We need another Rs 50 crore this year," he said.

Mitra indicated that the company was likely to infuse Rs 200 crore in two years to keep pace with the growth of premium income.

BSL is expecting Rs 1,800 crore new premium income in the current fiscal from Rs 628 crore in 2005-06. It collected Rs 275 crore new premium income till August 2006.

"Our total premium income, including renewals, was Rs 1,200 crore in 2005-06. This year we are targeting Rs 1,800 crore alone from new premium income," he added.

To achieve the target, the insurance outfit was doubling the number of insurance advisors from 21,000 to 45,000.

"We are growing at 60 per cent but that is not good enough because the industry as a whole is growing even faster," he added.

BSL currently had asset under management of Rs 2,616 crore, one of the highest in the industry.