Chola MS to focus on retail

Chennai: Non-life insurer Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company Ltd (Chola MS) is training its guns on commercial lines of business to increase its business from corporates. The firm is targeting a gross premium of Rs 2,500 crore this fiscal.

“Currently only 10 percent of our business is from commercial lines. We will now start looking at increasing our corporate or commercial lines of business (fire, transit, burglary and others) and also the health insurance,” said S.S. Gopalarathnam, managing director of the company.

Chola MS hopes to cut down its motor insurance dependence from current 67 per cent to 50 per cent in another five years. This will be mainly through business from corporate sector to 20 per cent and health insurance business to 25 per cent, the MD said.

Chola MS closed last year with a gross premium of Rs 1,855 crore and a net profit of Rs 70 crore for FY14. During 2012-13 the company’s premium income was Rs 1,620 crore and net profit was Rs 60 crore.

The investment income for the period under review stood at '175 crore up from '112 crore the previous year.