Kotak Life Insurance plans to expand horizons to Vizag, Vijayawada

Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance is looking at spreading its wings to Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada in the next fiscal. The private life insurance player, which currently has only two branches in Andhra Pradesh with both being in Hyderabad, is also planning to double its headcount in the city in the next financial year.

Speaking to Business Standard, Subhasis Ghosh, vice-president (east and south), Kotak Life Insurance, said, "Andhra Pradesh is an important market for the life insurance sector. So, we are looking at leveraging a deeper presence in this state by spreading to other cities like Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada in the next fiscal."

"We are looking at various distribution models and may adopt the franchisee model as well," Ghosh said, adding that this model will help them cut down on the infrastructure cost and reduce their workload too. Kotak Life Insurance is, at present, evaluating the benefits of following this distribution pattern.

"As of now, around three per cent of our business comes from Hyderabad and 13 per cent from the south. We need to better these numbers and are working towards this goal," Ghosh said. Kotak Life Insurance is looking at doubling its sales in Hyderabad in the coming financial year.

"We are also looking at doubling the headcount in Hyderabad in the next fiscal," Ghosh said. The life insurance player at present has 25 sales managers and 300 agents working for it in Hyderabad. In 2005-06, it is looking at increasing these numbers to 50 and 600 respectively.

Kotak Life Insurance has around 8,000 agents across the country of which 70 have qualified for the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT), an international association of sales professionals in the life insurance-based financial services.

"Six agents from Hyderabad have qualified for MDRT so far and we are positive that this number will increase to 10 by the end of the next financial year," Ghosh said.

Kotak Life Insurance is also contemplating tie ups with more banks for bancassurance purposes. At present, it has Dena Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank as its bancassurance partners.

"We are looking at tying up with more banks that have a nationwide reach," Ghosh said. Kotak Life Insurance is likely to garner Rs 250 crore as first premium income in the current fiscal.