New India Assurance to expand outside India

 

 

 

New India Assurance is in the process of leveraging its presence in the overseas markets. The company currently operates across 22 countries. It plans to enter Qatar, Myanmar and Canada this fiscal, according to G. Srinivasan, Chairman-cum-Managing Director.

 

On the sidelines of the company’s All India Regional Heads meeting, Srinivasan said the company was a significant re-insurance player outside India.

To a query, he said “There are challenges in overseas operation. First of all, we are a foreign company. Then, there is the general slowdown; there are regulatory restrictions and finally, the bias towards overseas companies in some places. But, we have managed quite well. Our reputation and international rating has helped us penetrate into newer markets.”

“London is a huge, growing and profitable market for us; we function as a re-insurer in close to half of our London operations and in Australia, we are a 100 per cent re-insurance company. We have invested in a venture in Kenya and Singapore; and foresee huge opportunity in the African countries,” he said.  “We are present in Japan too. We did suffer some losses two years back,” he said, in reply to a question.

 

‘We are trying to revive our operations in Canada, where we were present some years ago, but Qatar is a new market for us.” The company’s premium income from overseas operations stood at around Rs 2,500 crore in 2012-13, which is roughly 20 per cent of its gross premium income.