Reliance Life aims to break even in 3 yrs

Reliance Life Insurance Company has set a target of breaking even in three-and-a-half years. "We plans to break even by 2009-10 amid ambitions to become a significant national player in a short span of time," K V Srinivasan, chief operating officer, told reporters here today.

Apart from utilising its 30,000-strong agent force, the private sector life insurer is also in talks with various banks to build a bancassurance network.

Reliance Life does not have any bancassurance partner for selling its products as of now. The discussions with banks are at various stages, said Srinivasan,

Reliance Life's new business premium in the first quarter of 2006-07 was Rs 132 crore, an increase of 627 per cent over a quarter earlier.

This had catapulted Reliance Life, a Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group company, to eighth position from thirteenth at the end of September 2005 in terms of new business premium income. The company has 158 branches in 143 locations and has 3,654 employees.

When Reliance Capital acquired AMP Sanmar, the company had 9,985 advisors and 822 employees. The company is training 10,000 to 12,000 more agents. AMP Sanmar was subsequently rechristened as Reliance Life Insurance. The net worth of Reliance Capital is Rs 4,300 crore, including equity capital of Rs 383 crore.

The company is uniquely placed to tap the 25 million customer base of the ADAG group, P Nandagopal, chief executive officer of Reliance Life, said at the launch of a 15-year insurance cum savings product called "Reliance Connect 2 Life Plan". The plan, offering a choice of two plans, is aimed at individuals between 18 to 45 years.