Pvt insurers to toast adios to Big Foe Mathur

Hosting farewell parties for foes is rare in business, if not unheard of.

And if the adversary happens to be the head of as dominant an organisation as the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) "" that epitome of the establishment "" it makes for an unusual development.

On October 17, a dozen dapper CEOs of private life insurance companies will doff their hats to LIC chairman Sunil Behari Mathur "in acknowledgment of Mathur's contribution to industry, for his forward thinking which one would never have expected from a state player," to quote the CEO of a European joint venture life insurance company.

The refrain among the CEOs is that when a player controls well over 80 per cent of the market, consumers' views tend to be coloured "" in this instance, there is a natural skew towards LIC.

"Hence it has been good for the industry at large that during Mathur's tenure, the corporation adopted universal views," points out one CEO of a private insurance company.

The industry players, who met yesterday in Mumbai under the aegis of the Confederation of Indian Industry, will host a farewell dinner after the Life Insurance Council meeting.

Mathur will be retiring from LIC on October 31, after a stint of 37 years.

The refrain among private insurance helmsmen is that Mathur's has been a strong voice in support of the industry and regulations.

"His participation has helped the industry and he has played a big role, especially in communicating with regulators," said Shikha Sharma, CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company.

"He is a real statesman and gentleman. And the reason he gets such respect is because he respects everyone at whatever level," she adds.

The soft-spoken, taciturn Mathur did turn the lumbering leviathan into an aggressive competitor.

"He was quick to spot that bancassurance was taking off, and locked up a significant share of bancassurance agreements," said Stuart Purdy, CEO of Aviva Life Insurance Company.

This, he explained, has had a positive impact on policyholders, who are increasingly looking at purchasing insurance through banks.

The CEO of a north India-based life insurance company said Mathur "understood competition, and has ensured that LIC operates in a competitive manner and not as a monopoly."

Citing the example of how Mathur caught on to the unit-linked platform and moved aggressively on this turf, the CEO added: "Though LIC started with a minuscule number of unit-linked plans in the beginning of 2003-2004, it ended up with highest sales in unit-linked plans, probably higher than all our plans put together."

In his first interview after taking the LIC's reins two years back, Mathur had sounded circumspect: "It is a great feeling (being appointed as the chairman), but frightening too as so many things are happening ..... interest rates are falling, market dynamics have changed...."

He had set his goal to "maintain growth, retain market share and meet policyholders' 'realisable' expectations."

The insurance industry feels he has done far more than that. And it's not everyday that private sector pashas raise a toast to a public sector peer.