Page 12 - Insurance Times June 2019

Aditya Birla Health Insur- Liberty General Insurance sees major potential in Tier
ance eyes PSBs for banc- 2/3 cities; plans new products, tie-ups
Liberty General Insurance is keen on building scale and plans to open 100 new
assurance partnerships
branches this year and is also looking at new products and dis-
Aditya Birla Health Insurance Co
tribution tie-ups.
(ABHI), will, this year, look to bring
“We are looking at geographical expansion. In the first six years,
on board pub-
we had 60 branches. Now that we are at over Rs. 1,000 crore
lic sector banks
of premium and our systems are established, we have decided
(PSBs) for ex-
to grow geographically in Tier-2/3 cities,”said Roopam Asthana,
panding its
CEO and Whole Time Director, Liberty General Insurance.
bancassurance
It has already opened 55 of the 100 new branches it plans to
tie-ups, a top
open in 2019, Asthana said, adding that half of these will be virtual offices and
official said.
the remaining brick and mortar branches. Additionally, the insurer is also look-
“Now that we
ing at large distribution tie ups such as OEMs and bancassurance as well as
have completed two years of opera-
foraying into niche products to build scale.
tions as of March 2019, we are eli-
“We now have OEM tie ups with Hyundai and Tata Motors and we are doing
gible for public sector banks also.
the integration for our tie up with Maruti. We are very keen to get into OEM
This will add to the 10 private banks
tie-ups in the two-wheeler segment,” Asthana said, adding that growth is ex-
with which we already have banca
pected in Tier 2/3 cities despite the slowdown in passenger vehicle sales. It has
tie-ups,” Mayank Bathwal, Chief Ex-
recently tied up with online travel aggregator EaseMyTrip to provide zero can-
ecutive Officer, ABHI, told. Besides a
cellation charges on flight tickets.
strong distribution network through
The insurer is also working on products in segments such as cyber insurance,
banca tie-ups, ABHI also has an
property and title insurance as well as events, and mergers and acquisition. It
agency force of 18,500 to add to its
is also looking at accident and health insurance, where it sees long-term growth
distribution muscle.
potential.
On the banca strategy, Bathwal said
ABHI will follow a dual game of go-
Max India gets nod to sell stake in health insurance biz
ing deeper into existing banks and at
Max India has received approval of shareholders to sell its 51% stake in Max
the same time increasing the width
Bupa Health Insurance Company to private eq-
of partners.
uity firm True North. The company made the
“We will continue to look at banks voting result public on the BSE.
that will give us deeper reach in the
The special resolution for divestment of equity
country. More than size, we look at
shares of Max Bupa Health Insurance Com-
which banks will help us get to dif-
pany, a material subsidiary of the company,
ferent geographies and different cus-
obtained 94.13% votes in favour. The results showed that promoters and the
tomer segments. Our Axis Bank part-
promoters group had voted 100% in favour, while 86.47% of public institution
nership is expected to go live at the
had voted in favour of the special resolution. Around 99.84% of public-non in-
end of the quarter,” he said.
stitution also voted in favour of the special resolution.
ABHI, the fastest-growing health in-
The board of Max India approved the sale of its 51% stake in Max Bupa to True
surer, has more than doubled its
North. Max India is selling its health insurance business to True North and the
Gross Written Premium (GWP) to Rs.
hospitals business to Radiant Life Care.
497 crore for the year ended March
However, proxy advisors firm had some concerns about the deal. "The insur-
31, 2019. This was up 104 per cent
ance and hospitals business accounts for approximately 94.27% of Max India's
over the GWP of Rs. 243 crore re-
sales. The nub here too is not what happens to the residual company after a
corded in the previous year. In 2018-
substantial portion of the business is sold. While shareholders get shares in the
19, retail business accounted for 65
Max-Radiant business, the questions is what happens with the cash received,"
per cent of the total GWP.
IiAS said in its report.
12 The Insurance Times, June 2019