Life Insurance Corporation will exceed the Rs 40,000-crore target for investment in equities in the current financial year, said Chairman S. K. Roy.
In the current financial year so far, the public sector life insurer has made around Rs 32,000-crore worth new equity investments, he told newspersons on the sidelines of a FICCI summit.
“Investment is not a target. It is an estimate made in the beginning of the year. So far this year, we got more opportunity to buy than we had anticipated. If there is similar opportunity in the second half of the year, then in all likelihood we will cross the target of Rs 40,000 crore by some margin.” Roy said.
“If the market is high, we will see how much we can sell for profit-booking. If the market dips, that gives us a buying opportunity. In that sense, we have got both opportunities in abundant measure this fiscal,” Roy said.
Debt segment
The LIC chief said sectors such as banking, pharma auto and select infrastructure look attractive for investment. He also said the company is seeing good opportunity in the debt space.
“There is an improvement in this (debt) segment also. We are getting good proposals which are under consideration. I am sure this segment will look up by the end of the year,” he said.
On premium collection, Roy said the second quarter has been excellent for the company.
“Q2 has been an outstanding quarter for us... July was a good month with decent growth. In August, we have seen outstanding growth. I am confident of achieving Rs 33,000 crore of new premium collection this fiscal. Up to October 15, we have achieved Rs 15,000 crore,” Roy said.
Training agents
The state-run insurer, he said, is faced with a Herculean task of training its 12 lakh agents for selling revamped life insurance products that are compliant with the new product guidelines.
According to Roy, the new guidelines, which will be implemented from 2014, will not hit the insurer’s businessin the fourth quarter, wherein it typically sees the highest sales.
He said LIC has set a target of recruiting 2 lakh agents this year, of which, 85,000 has already been hired.
Presence on boards
Also, Roy said a conscious effort is being made to increase LIC’s representation on the boards of companies where it has substantial holdings.
“In the case of companies where we have significant holding and don’t have nominees on the board, I can say that since the beginning of this financial year, we have been engaging with those companies and we have been getting a positive response from them. I am sure our representation in these companies will start increasing in the near future,” Roy said