Bharti AXA General Insurance Company Limited, a joint venture between Bharti, one of India’s leading business groups with interests in Telecom, Agri Business and Retail; and AXA, world leader in Financial Protection and Wealth Management, today announced the launch of their Business operations. The Company received the Certificate of Registration from the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) on July 27, 2008, thus paving way for commencement of business.
Bharti AXA General Insurance will offer products catering to the Rural, Urban and Commercial segments (Large Corporate, Medium enterprises and Small enterprises). To them, they will offer a wide range of products that cover Property, Projects & Engineering, Cargo, Motor, Health, Personal Accident and Travel.
Commenting on the launch, Mr. Milind Chalisgaonkar, Chief Executive Officer, Bharti AXA General Insurance said, “We are extremely happy to announce the commencement of operations. The General Insurance market is one with strong growth potential, and we are confident of serving customers with innovative products, strong distribution, personalized service and efficient claims settlement. We aim to be the preferred company for Financial Protection within the next few years.”
Mr. Kimsoon Chua, COO, Bharti AXA General Insurance said, “We have developed a strong and broad distribution platform to reach our customers, both in urban and rural locations. Our product range comprises of both traditional and innovative insurance solutions to meet our customers growing needs. This will be supported by a strong and user-friendly IT system.”
Commenting on the investments made into this JV, Mr. George Kurien, CFO, Bharti AXA General Insurance said, “An initial amount of INR 130 Crores has been invested by Bharti and AXA and the projected capital injection for the next 5 years is INR 645 Crores. Currently we have 7 offices across the country, and we plan to expand to 29 locations by the end of the first year of operations.”
Bharti holds 74% and AXA holds 26% of equity interest in the company. The company is headquartered in Bangalore and will establish a pan-India business network with offices and partnerships.
Bharti Group and AXA Group had launched Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company in 2006. They also have a joint venture for asset management - Bharti AXA Investment Managers. Illustrating their commitment to the Indian market, AXA Group is contributing their domain expertise, global blueprint, best practices and technology, whereas Bharti Group is bringing in its strong local market expertise and countrywide retail distribution network.
About Bharti Enterprises
Bharti Enterprises is one of India’s leading business groups with interests in telecom, agri business, financial services and retail. Bharti has been a pioneering force in the telecom sector with many firsts and innovations to its credit. Bharti Airtel Limited, a group company, is one of India’s leading private sector providers of telecommunications services with an aggregate of over 71.7 million customers as of end of June 2008, spanning Mobile services, Telemedia services and Enterprise services. Bharti Airtel has been ranked amongst the best performing companies in the world in the BusinessWeek IT 100 list 2007. Bharti Teletech is the country’s largest manufacturer and exporter of telephone terminals. Bharti has a joint venture – Bharti Del Monte India (P) Ltd – with Del Monte Foods India Pvt. Ltd., to offer fresh and processed fruits and vegetables in the domestic as well as international markets including Europe, USA and Middle East. Bharti has a joint venture - Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Ltd. - with AXA, world leader in financial protection and wealth management. Bharti also has a joint venture for an asset management company - Bharti AXA Investment Managers Private Ltd. - with AXA IM and AXA APH. Bharti has recently forayed into retail business under a company called Bharti Retail Pvt. Ltd. It also has a joint venture - Bharti Wal-Mart Private Ltd. - with Wal-Mart for wholesale cash-and-carry and back-end supply chain management operations in India.
About AXA
AXA Group is a worldwide leader in Financial Protection. AXA’s operations are diverse geographically, with major operations in Europe, North America and the Asia/Pacific area. AXA had Euro 1,281 billion in asset under management as of December 31, 2007. For full year 2007, IFRS revenues amounted to Euro 93.6 billion and IFRS adjusted earnings to Euro 6.1 billion.
The AXA ordinary share is listed on compartment A of Euronext Paris under the ticker symbol CS (ISIN FR0000120608-Bloomberg: CS FP- Reuters: AXAF.PA). The American Depository Share is also listed on NYSE under the ticker symbol AXA.
