Page 8 - Insurance Times October 2023

In another first, driven by the health general insurance after dropping out months, led by a substantial fall in crop
segment, standalone health insurers' of the race for Reliance General Insur- insurance premiums. In the year-ago
market share also rose to double dig- ance, the company's chairman Ajay period, premium had risen by 11.9 per
its at 10.4 per cent during this period Piramal said. cent, as per industry data.
from 9.2 per cent.
Last year, Piramal was one of the bid- "The growth was subdued due to a fall
Although segment-wise data is yet to ders for Reliance General Insurance, a in the crop insurance and liability seg-
be released, standalone health insur- subsidiary of Reliance Capital, which is ments and as the fire segment contin-
ers' performance shows higher growth undergoing bankruptcy proceedings. ued to report subpar performance
in the segment. Piramal dropped out, leaving the compared with last year. Interestingly,
The General Insurance Council data ground for others who bid for the public sector premiums have now re-
showed that the non-life insurance sec- whole group, with IndusInd Holdings duced to approximately a third of the
emerging as the highest bidder. aggregate premium highlighting the
tor grew by 11.7 per cent during the
growth differential between the pub-
first five months to August, recording
lic and private sectors," CareEdge said
premium income of Rs. 1.14 lakh crore,
compared with Rs. 1.02 lakh crore in Non-life insurers' premium in a note.
the same period in FY23. falls 3.7% in August after The market share of private non-life
Piramal eyes general in- insurance companies has increased to
10 months of growth 65 per cent for FY24 so far from 62 per
surance acquisitions Non-life insurance companies' pre- cent in FY23 and 59 per cent n FY22,

Piramal Enterprises will continue to mium fell 3.7 per cent on-year in Au- highlighting the growth differential
look for acquisition opportunities in gust, after rising for 10 straight between the public and private sec-
tors, it added.
Govt unlikely to infuse capital in PSU general insur-
Gross direct premium underwritten for
ers in FY24 the month was Rs. 23,558 crore,
The PSU General Insurance Companies are unlikely to get capital funding driven largely by Health and Motor
from the government in the current fiscal, a senior official said. He said one Insurance. For the financial year so far,
of the PSU non-life insurance companies is likely to give a dividend to the growth continued to be in double dig-
government in the current fiscal and they will be able to meet their sol- its at 11.7 per cent, but was lower
vency margins. than 18.6 per cent for the correspond-
ing period in the previous year.
The government last year provided Rs 5,000 crore capital to three insurers
--National Insurance Company, Oriental Insurance Company and United In- Within Non-Life Insurers, premiums for
dia Insurance Company. general insurers was up 12.8 per cent,
The Budget 2023-24 has not provided for the capital infusion for insurance higher than 9.3 per cent a year ago,
companies. on the back of a rise in renewals and
passenger vehicle sales. Year-to-date
"We do not think there is a need for capital infusion as of now. In fact, one (YTD) however, growth fell to 16 per
of the general insurance companies may give a dividend this year," the of-
cent from 19 per cent due to slower
ficial said.
growth in the fire segment.
According to rating agency ICRA, most PSU insurers are expected to wit- Premium growth for Standalone
ness a high combined ratio resulting in net losses, though it will be lower Health Insurers was at Rs.2,591 crore,
compared to the last few years.
slowing down to 25.7 per cent from
The capital requirement of three PSU general insurers (excluding New In- 28.1 per cent on a y-o-y basis, and to
dia) is estimated at a sizeable Rs 17,200-17,500 crore to meet solvency of 25.8 per cent from 27.3 per cent on a
1.50x as of March 2024, assuming 100 per cent forbearance on FVCA (fair YTD basis. As such, over 25 per cent
value change account), ICRA said in a report in May. growth was led by improvement in
During 2020-21, Rs 9,950 crore was infused in three public sector general retail health renewal numbers and
insurers by the government, out of which Rs 3,605 crore was infused in increased government schemes
United India Insurance, Rs 3,175 crore in National Insurance and Rs 3,170 across both retail and group health
crore in Oriental Insurance. segments.

8 October 2023 The Insurance Times