Tag: Shriram Life Insurance

Private sector Shriram Life Insurance, which has been focussing on rural markets, is hoping to grow by 15-20 per cent on an annual basis.

“The expectation is that the life insurance industry will grow by about 15 per cent or so for the next number of years. So we hope to grow slightly faster than that — maybe between 15 per cent and 20 per cent per year,” said Casparus Kromhout, Managing Director and CEO, Shriram Life Insurance.

While the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has raised further uncertainties on the economic outlook, Kromhout said the life insurer has been putting a lot of things in place for supporting its existing channels. It has also been working on innovation and creating new business models.

Net profit

The life insurer registered a threefold increase in its net profit to ₹106 crore in 2020-21.

“The first quarter of last fiscal was very difficult for everyone. But we ended the year with new business premium growth of 25 per cent,” he told BusinessLine in an interaction, pointing out that a large part of the company’s customer base is from rural areas and was impacted by the pandemic.

“When the first lockdown came last year, we were very worried because our customer base was impacted by both the medical emergency and loss of income. We thought that the business would really suffer and customers wouldn’t be able to pay their premiums or buy insurance. Fortunately, we were able to come back in the second half of the year,” he said.

In 2020-21, about 47 per cent of its new business and 54 per cent of claims came from the rural segment.

Its average premium size is about ₹17,400 while the average industry premium size is around ₹50,000.

The rural areas have been quite severely impacted in the second wave of the pandemic, he said adding there has been an uptick in Covid related claims in April and May this year. He, however, said the company is well prepared to meet the rising claims.