Life insurance logs 58% growth in April

Life insurance sector grew by 58 per cent in April as private players kicked off fiscal 2006-07 by increasing their market share to over 32 per cent.

The 15 life insurers collected Rs 1,996 crore (Rs 19.96 billion) in the first month of this fiscal compared to Rs 1,260 crore (Rs 12.60 billion) in the corresponding period of last fiscal according to data compiled by regulator IRDA.

Country's largest life insurer LIC collected Rs 1,355 crore (Rs 13.55 billion) in first year premium in April after it sold 6.4 lakh policies as against Rs 1,023 crore (Rs 10.23 billion) mopped up in the year-ago period, a growth of 32 per cent.

But, LIC's market share came down drastically to 67.88 per cent in April from 81 per cent in the same month last fiscal, signalling fierce competition in the coming days between the PSU insurance behemoth and private players for selling policies.

The 14-private insurers increased their premium incomes by a whopping 170 per cent, collecting Rs 641 crore (Rs 6.41 billion) and a market share of 32.12 per cent.

ICICI Prudential led the private players by doubling premium income to Rs 147 crore (Rs 1.47 billion), followed by Bajaj Allianz, whose premium income grew by 400 per cent with a collection of Rs 146 crore (Rs 1.46 billion).

ICICI Prudential had a market share of 7.36 per cent while Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance had 7.31 per cent of the market.

HDFC Standard collected Rs 61 crore (Rs 610 million), followed by Max New York Life (Rs 42 crore or Rs 420 million), ING Vysya (Rs 39 crore or Rs 390 million), Tata AIG (Rs 37 crore or Rs 370 million), Reliance Life (Rs 36.89 crore or Rs 368.9 million), SBI Life (Rs 35 crore or Rs 350 million), Aviva (Rs 32.5 crore or Rs 325 million), Birla Sunlife (Rs 28.73 crore or Rs 287.3 million), Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual (Rs 25 crore or Rs 250 million) and Met Life (Rs 9 crore or Rs 90 million).

Others, Shriram Life and Sahara Life had collected less than Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million) in premium.

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