Gross premium collection of general insurance industry grew 22 per cent with private players advancing by 26 per cent and public sector insurers rising by 19 per cent
Mumbai: The general insurance industry advanced 22 per cent in February 2011 as compared to previous year. The non-life insurers underwrote Rs. 3403 crore in February 2011 compared to Rs. 2775 crore last year.
During the April-February 2011 period, industry collected a total premium of Rs. 37,909 crore, up 22 per cent compared to Rs. 30,942 crore in the previous year. In the non-life space private sectors are growing faster compared to public sector players.
Where the general insurance business of private players grew 26 per cent in February 2011 underwriting to Rs. 1,463 crore, public sector player’s premium business grew 19 per cent. The market share of share of private players has grown by 1 per cent to 43 percent compared to last year. Over the last one year, private players have been actively launching new products to suit customers’ needs.
Among the private players ICICI Lombard has underwritten the highest gross premium of Rs.367 crore in February 2011, up 34 per cent as compared to last year. The second in this category was Bajaj Allianz which mopped up Rs. 241 crore followed by Reliance General which collected Rs. 140 crore.
In terms of market share both Bajaj Allianz and Reliance General witnessed a drop of 2 per cent each to 16 per cent and 10 per cent respectively whereas the market share of ICICI Lombard went up by 2 per cent to 25 per cent for the same period.
Other private non-life insurers which witnessed their gross premium rising more than 30 per cent in the reporting month are HDFC ERGO General, Shriram General, Bharti AXA General and Future Generali.
National Insurance collected the highest premium among the public sector insurers. The gross premium collection of the insurer grew 36 per cent to Rs. 545 crore in February 2011 as compared to last year resulting in a gain of 4% market share.