Oriental Insurance taking steps to become profitable

With steps taken to control losses, Oriental Insurance Company anticipates turning a profit by the end of the fiscal year. Although the management expects premiums to increase to Rs 18,000 crore by 2023–24 (FY24), it emphasizes that profitability would not be sacrificed in order to achieve this development.

The public sector non-life insurer reduced its losses from Rs 3,586.93 crore in the same time last year to Rs 47.12 crore in the first half (H1) of FY24. It does, however, note that because of a salary revision arrear payment in H1 of 2022–2023 (FY23), the data are not directly comparable.

The Oriental Insurance Company's chairman and managing director, R Singh, stated, "Our wage revision occurs every five years. Last year, it covered five years, and the company paid Rs 2,300 crore. Excluding this amount, the company incurred a loss of almost Rs 1,300 crore.

The company's combined ratio decreased to 119 percent during the period under review from 163 percent in H1 of this year. In H1FY23, the combined ratio was 132% excluding the salary provision.

"If the trend continues and there are no catastrophic losses, we may generate some profit by the end of the financial year," Singh said with optimism.

The management plans to expand premium expectations to between Rs 17,500 and Rs 18,000 crore by the end of FY24.

"In H1FY24, we grew at a rate of 15%," Singh stated. Even if this growth rate only reaches 10% by the end of the year, that is still a growth rate I would like to maintain. As a result, I have an internal goal this year of roughly Rs 18,000 crore as opposed to Rs 16,000 crore last year. However, I don't want to expand at the expense of my profitability. Therefore, a positive combination is needed. We should be close to Rs 17,500–Rs 18,000 crore, hopefully.