Latest News | SBI General Eyes 8.5% Market Share by March
Get latest articles and stories on Latest News at LatestLY. Driven by the momentum in the health and motor portfolios, SBI General Insurance is expecting to increase its market share among the private sector non-life players to 8.5 per cent by March, a top company official has said.
Mumbai, Oct 9 (PTI) Driven by the momentum in the health and motor portfolios, SBI General Insurance is expecting to increase its market share among the private sector non-life players to 8.5 per cent by March, a top company official has said.
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The optimism comes from a growth rate of 25 per cent it has clocked in the first five months of the year as against the industry growth rate of 5 per cent, and the uptick in the motor business, which is its single-largest business portfolio, P C Kandpal, managing director & chief executive of SBI General Insurance, told PTI in a recent concall.
And he expects to close the year with an overall growth of 20 per cent in the health portfolio.
In the June quarter, the company's AUM clipped at 21 per cent to Rs 7,725 crore and had a 7.3 per cent market share among the private players.
But Kandpal does not expect motor business to turnaround even with the uptick since August as the segment is a long-haul when it comes to underwriting profit.
The company expects to make some profit in the third-party cover business as most public transport including taxis are off the road since April, but the same is not seen in the OD (own damage) segment given the massive increase in use of personal mode of commute due to the pandemic, says Kandpal.
With 22.24 per cent of its premium income coming in from motor, this is the single largest business for SBI General as well, while for the industry as a whole, this accounts for as much as 40 per cent of the business.
The company enjoys a low 3.5 per cent overall market share and 7.3 per cent among the private players, which is wants to ramp up to 8.5 per cent by March, Kandpal says.
The company has 5.2 per cent market share in the fire segment, 2.1 per cent in motor, controls 2 per cent of the health, a high 13.5 per cent in personal accidents, which makes it the largest player, and 7.8 per cent in the crop vertical and taking its overall market share to 3.5 per cent as of end August.
After motor, health and crop and fire are the largest verticals for the company. In August alone, the crop premium jumped 80 per cent to Rs 800 crore.
On profitability, he said except for the motor segment all other segments are profitable. He also says he will ensure that no segment grows more than 30 per cent with a view to avoiding concentration risks.
On the pandemic cover and claims, he said the company has issued 20,000 COVID Kavach policies and till August claims were only 1,700 or worth about Rs 15 crore.
On the proposed pandemic pool Kandpal said, this is the need of the hour but without the government support, it just cannot be run meaningfully and effectively.
"If the government lends support, the pandemic pool is very good. On a standalone basis, the industry will not be able to commercially make it and so the way forward to me is the public-private partnership only," Kandpal said.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)