Launches 100th branch in Delhi; Targets to open over 200 branches by December 2008.
Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Limited, the private life insurance joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and AXA Group, today announced the launch of its 100th branch in India, at Delhi. The company is also launching operations in Ghaziabad and Faridabad today to strengthen their branch network in Northern India.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Nitin Chopra, CEO of Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company stated, “I am delighted to be launching our 100th branch within 19 months of commencing national operations. We hope to expand our network in India to over 200 branches by December 2008, making our geographical expansion plans one of the most aggressive in the Indian life insurance industry.”
Bharti AXA Life launched national operations in December 2006 at Mumbai, as a mass market player with a multi-channel distribution strategy. Today, the Company has presence in large and small cities and towns alike, through its widespread branch and distribution network. The multi-channel distribution spread of Bharti AXA Life comprises agents, corporate agents and brokers, bancassurance and telcassurance.
Telcassurance is Bharti AXA Life’s innovation in life insurance distribution. This channel aims to reach out to over 71 million customers of Bharti Airtel.
As its first telcassurance initiative, the Company has established presence in 360 Airtel Relationship Centres (ARCs) spread across 41 cities in India.
“Our initiative at the ARCs includes having dedicated financial advisors, relevant branding and product literature. Bharti Airtel customers visiting these ARCs have access to a range of life insurance services and quality advice on financial protection.
This is in line with our objective of making insurance solutions and investment options more accessible to the large insurable population in India. In addition to innovative and widespread distribution, we also believe in offering quality financial advice that enables informed insurance buying,” Mr Chopra added.
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About Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Ltd.
Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Ltd is a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and AXA, world leader in financial protection and wealth management. The joint venture company has a 74% stake from Bharti and 26% stake of AXA Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd (APH).
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 Group (AXA SA)
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. Full year 2007 IFRS revenues amounted to Euro 94 billion and adjusted earnings to Euro 6,138 million. The AXA ordinary share is listed on compartment A of Euronext Paris under the ticker symbol CS (ISIN FR0000120628 – Bloomberg: CS FP – Reuters: AXAF.PA). The American Depository Share is also listed on the NYSE under the ticker symbol AXA.
AXA Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd (AXA APH)
Is listed on the Australian stock exchange and is 53% owned by AXA SA. AXA APH is responsible for AXA SA’s life insurance and wealth management businesses in the Asia-Pacific region. It has operations in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, China, India and Malaysia. AXA APH had A$109 billion in total funds under management and administration and advice at 31 December 2007 and reported a profit after tax of A$638.7 million for the twelve months ended 31 December 2007.
