Reliance Life new business rises 40 percent to Rs.1,934 crore

New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) Reliance Life Insurance, a unit of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group, Thursday said its new business premium collection, helped by a sharp jump in individual insurance segment, rose by 40 percent to Rs.1,934 crore in the financial year ended March 2004.

The company's new business premium collection stood at Rs.1,377 crore in the financial year 2012-13.

In terms of getting the new business premium, Reliance Life performed much better than the industry average. For the entire life insurance industry, the new business premium income grew by 11.6 percent to Rs.1.20 lakh crore in the fiscal 2013-14 as compared to Rs.1.07 crore in the previous year, according to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority data.

Reliance Life registered a rise of 6 percent in its total premium income, comprising new business and renewal premium collections, to Rs.4,283 crore in the financial year ended March 31, 2014 as compared to Rs.4,045 crore in the previous year.

"Despite the challenging market conditions, we registered a strong growth of 40 percent in the new business premium income and posted a substantial 6 percent rise in our total premium collection in the financial year 2013-14," Reliance Life Insurance chief executive officer Anup Rau said in a statement.

He said the average ticket premium size of Reliance Life improved by 49 percent year-on-year to over Rs.19,000, while its agent productivity grew by 56 percent in the last financial year.

Reliance Life posted a profit of Rs.359 crore for the financial year, down from Rs.380 crore in the same period of previous fiscal 2012-13. Notably, the company had surrender profit of Rs.160 crore for 2013-14.

The new business achieved profit margin for the year ended March 31, 2014 rose to 23.8 percent as against 20.2 percent for the corresponding previous period.

However, the renewal collection of the company fell to Rs.2,349 in 2013-14 from Rs.2,669 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.

Rau said the company is taking several initiatives ranging from incentive programmes to overall process re-engineering in order to increase its renewals. "We expect to see positive results in the current fiscal, as stringent checks are being put in place to push the quality of business."

The company's total funds under management stood at Rs.18,328 crore as on March 31, 2014, against Rs.18,189 crore in the year-earlier period.

"Our focus for the current financial year is to sustain business momentum through continued enhancement in productivity and need-based selling, improve business quality further and enhance service experience," Rau added.