New Delhi: Reliance General Insurance is betting big on sale of health insurance products in the highly under-penetrated Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as parts of its plans to achieve full-year profitability this fiscal.
"SME health cover is a big untapped opportunity with most small and medium enterprises in the country not providing health insurance cover to their employees.
"Besides, there is hardly any awareness on the health cover in the SME segment. Our next focus arena is to service the SMEs," Reliance General Insurance Company (RGIC) CEO Rakesh Jain said.
SMEs are estimated to employ nearly 75 million people in the country and contribute 9-10 percent of India's GDP.
"Since SMEs are widespread and not so well-organised, we aim to tap into this through our agents. We are training and pushing our agents to look beyond the retail business and targeting some 10 percent business from SMEs and corporates.
"We have also created a specialised channel to meet and serve the requirements of SMEs," Jain told PTI.
RGIC, part of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group's financial services arm Reliance Capital, offers motor, health, property, travel, marine and commercial insurance products among others.
Besides health insurance products for employees of SMEs, the company is also planning other sector-wise insurance plans in order to diversify its business portfolio.
"We want to specialise in sector-wise products and are talking with personnel in cement, IT and power sectors to understand their needs and create a development role for them. Hence, we have started to create a more risk-based approach to service different sectors," Jain said.
Currently, motor insurance accounts for 64 percent of the its total business, while health and fire account for 16 percent and 8 percent, respectively.
Across the general insurance market, motor insurance accounts for 46 percent of total business, followed by health insurance at 26 percent and fire insurance at 10 percent.
Reliance General is looking to re-balance its business portfolio as part of its plans to achieve 20 percent growth in current fiscal 2013-14.
The company reduced its full-year loss in last financial year 2012-13 to Rs 93 crore, from Rs 343 crore loss posted during the previous year 2011-12. It hopes to achieve full-year profitability in the current fiscal.
"We aim to grow by more than 20 percent in FY14 and our target is to register profits continuously quarter-on-quarter in order to show profit for the whole year," Jain said.
PTI
