Chennai, Jan 27 (IANS) The entry of British reinsurer Lloyd’s will be better for Indian insurance brokers as the reinsurance business could be placed with Lloyd’s in India, a top official of Mahindra Insurance Brokers Ltd. said on Wednesday.
“Lloyd’s is like a market place where various syndicate operate like an insurance company underwriting reinsurance business. The entry of Lloyd’s will be better for players like us,” Jaideep Devare, managing director of Mahindra Insurance Brokers, told reporters here.
He said reinsurance business could be placed with Lloyd’s within India itself than going to Britain.
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is framing the guidelines for allowing Lloyd’s to set up branch office in India.
Speaking about the Rs.126 crore-revenue Mahindra Insurance Brokers, Devare said the company was confident of crossing last year’s business figures and will soon be going online in addition to its existing brick-and-mortar model.
“We are now planning to go online and necessary investments are being made. All these years, we have been following the brick-and-mortar model,” Devare said.
Queried about any stake-increase proposal by Inclusion Resources Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of LeapFrog Investments, Devare answered in the negative.
Inclusion Resources took 15 percent equity in Mahindra Insurance in 2012 and remaining 85 percent is held by Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd.
According to Devare, the company has placed business worth around Rs.819 crore this fiscal — higher by 24 percent over last year’s corresponding period.
He said the company would cross last year’s business placement figure of around Rs.1,003 crore that fetched a brokerage of around Rs.126 crore and a net profit of around Rs.43 crore.
Declining to share the company’s class-wise business break-up, Devare said bulk of the business placed by it are motor insurance followed by health and life.
He said the captive group business will be around 30 percent of the company’s total business and is within the regulatory limits.
Questioned about client-retention ratio, Devare said the ratio is good in the case of corporate clients while a lot of churning happens in the motor insurance sector.
On reinsurance, he said the company has placed different kinds of risks — factories, liability and others — with reinsurers.