BIRLA SUN LIFE TARGETS INR20BN IN NEW BUSINESS PREMIUMS

Indian assurer Birla Sun Life, a joint venture of Sun Life of Canada and Indian conglomerate Aditya Birla, said that it was targeting new business premium of INR20bn ($504.9m) in new business premiums for the year ending March 31 2008, the company has said. First-year premium for the nine months to December 2007 was up 114% to INR10.97bn, against a first-year premium for the same period the previous year of INR5.12bn. CEO and president Vikram Mehni said that “we hope to close the year with a new business premium of INR20bn by March 2008”. He added that the company would be increasing its branch network to 600 and recruiting 10,000 agents by the end of March, adding that there could also be an additional capital injection of INR1bn. “There may also be another capital infusion of RS 100 crore before March”, he said. Mr Mehmi claimed that Birla Sun Life had regained lost market share. “We have gained back our lost market share. We were ranked ninth in the industry in April 2007 and have now moved upward to the sixth position in the industry as of December 2007”. Birla Sun Life currently has 86,000 advisers throughout India, and 340 branches.