Kotak Life draws up Kerala expansion plans

Kotak Life Insurance has charted out strategies to focus on a deeper penetration in Kerala for a larger share of the insurance market.

Talking to mediapersons here, Pankaj Desai, executive director "� sales and distribution, Kotak Life Insurance, said the company expects to service more customers in every district of Kerala.

"As a step towards this goal, we have launched our fifth branch in Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram, after establishing ourselves in Kochi, Kottayam, Thrissur and Kozhikode. In the near future, we will have branches at Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha and Kannur," he said.

The Thiruvananthapuram branch, at Pattom, is the 98th Kotak Life Insurance branch in India.

The insurance player will reach a landmark next week by opening its 100th branch in Bangalore. "By March 2008, that is in five months' time, we will have as many as 160 branches all over India," Desai added.

The Kerala expansion is in line with the company's focus on five specific markets, the other four being Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana and Maharashtra.

Explaining the rationale for including Kerala as one of the focus areas, Desai said the company was doing so acknowledging the facts that Kerala has a highly literate population and a potential middle-class.

He said as many as 500 employees would be in place to service Kerala's life insurance customers in the coming few months.

The new branch in the Kerala capital will cater to the districts of Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam, covering towns such as Varkala, Attingal, Nedumangad, Neyyattinkara, Kottarakara and Punalur.