PRIVATE PLAYERS CONTINUE TO INCREASE MARKET SHARE IN INDIA

Privately-owned insurance companies in India saw their market share of non-life business increase to 34% of the market in April, up from 26% in March. The 12 independent companies collected Rp9.26bn in premiums, up 45% on April last year. The publicly owned insurers also expanded, but at a much slower rate, with New India, Oriental, United India and National Insurance seeing premium income grow by just 5% to Rp17.76bn. ICICI Lombard was the fastest growing of the eight private players, with premium income increasing 63% year-on-year to reach Rp3.3bn.