IndiaFirst Life Insurance is eyeing to be among the top 10 insurers in terms of retail business premium over the next few years as it is the fastest growing company in the sector, a company official said.
"In terms of individual new business annual premium equivalent (APE) we are growing at 120 per cent year-on-year. We were the fastest growing life insurance company last year and continue to be the fastest growing insurer so far this year," IndiaFirst Life Insurance Director-Sales & Marketing Rushabh Gandhi said.
The industry is growing at 26 per cent and IndiaFirst is confident of delivering a better than industry growth over the next couple of years, he said.
"In terms of market ranking in individual APE, we are ranked 12th amongst the private insurers and aspire to break into the top 10 over the next few years," Gandhi told PTI in an interaction.
Gandhi said the company achieved a net profit of Rs 35 crore in 2016-17, four-times higher than previous fiscal, mainly due to strong focus on individual retail premium business.
On growth projection, he said IndiaFirst is focused on building a business that is sustainable, scalable and profitable.
"We are aspiring to achieve Rs 50 crore of net profit in current fiscal 2017-18," he said.
Speaking about participating in government schemes, the official said IndiaFirst has a very strong presence in the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJY).
"We have typically collected over Rs 200 crore of premium in Jeevan Jyoti over the last three years," he said.
The scheme is a win-win situation for insurance companies as well as customers because they are getting really good products with Rs 2 lakh as cover, Gandhi said.
He said the company has added two big customers - Indo- Tibetan Border Police Force and Axis Bank - under group term life insurance covers over 50,000 lives for each of the entity.
IndiaFirst will also soon launch a child protection plan after getting approval from insurance regulator Irdai.
IndiaFirst Life Insurance is a three-party joint venture between Bank of Baroda (44 per cent), Andhra Bank (30 per cent) and UK-based, Legal & General (26 per cent).
As a private sector entity, the company holds around 2 per cent of the market share in the retail business.
There are a total of 24 life insurers in India, of which 23 are from private sector while Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is the only state-owned firm. LIC is also the largest insurer in the country.
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