Bharti AXA General Insurance, a private general insurer, has posted its first ever full year profit, recording net profit of Rs 3 crore in 2018-19.
The company, which started in August 2008, had recorded a net loss of Rs 92.6 crore in 2017-18.
The better bottomline performance on the entire 2018-19 was driven by 29 percent growth in Gross Written Premium (GWP) at Rs 2,285 crore (Rs 1,772 crore). This 29 per cent growth was much ahead of the 12.9 per cent growth recorded by the overall industry and 25 per cent by the private sector.
‘’We are happy to notch up the first-ever full-year profitability and grow faster than the industry in the financial year 2018-19. This has been achieved by expanding the distribution network, adding number of strategic distribution partnerships and business alliances and diversification of product lines. We will continue to focus on channel and segment diversification, productivity and prudent expense management to drive growth in years to come,’’ Sanjeev Srinivasan, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Bharti AXA General Insurance, said.
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Apart from delivering consistently across key matrices of the business and growing ahead of the industry growth rate, he said, the top line performance has been strong on the back of enhanced claims and expense ratio, improving the overall combined ratio.
The combined ratio, a measure of profitability that takes into account claims and expenses as a proportion of premiums, improved to 115.3 per cent in the financial year 2018-19 from 126.9 per cent during 2017-18 on the back of improvement in loss ratio and expense ratio.
Loss ratio reduced to 77 per cent in 2018-19 from 83 per cent in 2017-18, while expense ratio witnessed a significant dip at 38.3 per cent in the financial year ended March 31, 2019 against 43.8 per cent in the corresponding period of 2017-18.
Bharti AXA General Insurance, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and French insurance giant AXA, witnessed overall growth across all product lines and all channels and healthy growth in segments like health insurance, personal accident, travel, commercial lines and crop.
Health, personal accident and travel category of products recorded a 125 per cent growth at Rs. 334 crore in 2018-19 against Rs. 149 crore in 2017-18. Commercial lines saw a growth of 70 per cent at Rs. 288 crore in 2018-19 against Rs. 170 crore in 2017-18. Motor insurance, which accounts for over 50 per cent of the business, grew by 6 per cent to Rs. 1,143 crore in 2018-19 from Rs. 1,075 crore in Previous fiscal.
“our continued focus on increasing distribution network and business alliances has been a key driver for the company’s overall growth in both retail and corporate business. We continue to build on a steady path ahead of industry growth with superior risk selection and cost management to boost growth in the years ahead.” , Srinivasan said.
The company, which has corporate agency partnership with six leading banks, has also forged partnerships with several motor insurance service providers, brokers, 16 NBFCs and 36 co-operative banks to boost its retail distribution and chase growth aspirations.