Royal Sundaram General Eyes 25% Biz from Accident, Health Cover

Private sector Royal Sundaram General Insurance has charted out a five-year growth plan under which it is looking at more than doubling premium income coming from accident, health and home insurance to 25% of its total premium income from the current 11%. Similarly, the company also plans to increase premium income from commercial line of business-comprising segments like property, engineering, marine and liability to 20% from 12% over the next five years. As of March 2016, its total premium stood at Rs 1,700 crore which may touch Rs 2,100 crore by this financial year. "We are looking at raising the share of premium coming from accidents, health and home insurance to 25% over the next five years from the current level of 11%," Royal Sundaram GI chief product officer Nikhil Apte told PTI. The company had earned premium income through accident, health and home insurance at Rs 200 crore for last year and is likely to close the current year with a premium income of Rs 220 crore. Out of this, the company is likely to see the flow of new business under the segment at Rs 45 crore. Again, the new business coming from online channel under the segment during the current fiscal is likely to be at Rs 8-9 crore, he said.

The company also plans to increase premium income from commercial line of business to 20% from the present 12% over the next five years, he added. Motor insurance is the largest segment for premium income for the company at present, contributing 75% of its total premium income. "We want to bring down our premium income from motor insurance to 55%, from the present 75%, over the next five years," Apte said. When it comes to health, Royal Sundaram wants to increase its premium income to 25% over the next five years from 12%, he said, adding however, "we are selective on group health insurance and so we are eyeing retail health insurance to touch 25%," Apte said. As of now, it has 20-odd products under health insurance category, after it withdrew 21 products a year ago. It has applied for two more products. The company has further plans to bring down the number of health products to under 10 over the next five years as the idea is to consolidate and make them comprehensive, he said. The company has become a fully-domestically owned one after England-based RSA sold its 26% stake to Sundaram Finance, the parent company of Royal Sundaram GI, a couple of years ago. Solvency margin, which reflects the financial health of an insurance company, of Royal Sundaram is at 2 which is above the regulatory requirement of 1.5.