Investment income boosts general insurers bottomline in FY14

Mumbai: Riding on high investment income, non-life insurers have managed to record larger profits at Rs  4,439 crore in the last fiscal despite bigger under-writing  losses incurred by them. 

Total net profit of non-life insurers stood at Rs 4,439 crore in 2013-14 as against Rs 3,282 crore in 2012-13, according to the annual data released by the regulator Irda.  According to Irda, public sector insurers' underwriting losses rose 6.24 per cent to Rs 5,724 crore in 2013-14 from Rs  5,388 crore a year ago, while private players' underwriting losses came down to Rs 1,825 crore in 2013-14 from Rs 1,830  crore in previous year.  The overall underwriting loss, which is the excess of losses over premium, were at Rs 7,549 crore in 2013-14 as against Rs 7,217 crore in previous year. 

The six public sector companies reported total net profit  of Rs 2,900 crore whereas 22 private sector insurers together  reported net profit of Rs 1,539 crore in 2013-14.  The investment income of all non-life insurers during  2013-14 was at Rs 13,377 crore, up from Rs 11,602 crore in  previous year, registering a growth of 13.27 per cent as  against 21.31 per cent previous year.  Among private players, 17 reported profits, and the rest incurred net losses during 2013-14.  Net incurred claims for the industry stood at Rs 45,692 crore in FY14 as against Rs 39,624 crore in 2012-13. 

The net incurred claims exhibited an increase of 15.32  per cent during 2013-14.  "In spite of losses due to the Phalin cyclone and Uttarakhand floods, we were able to make some profit out of  investment income during the year," ICICI Lombard head of  underwriting and claims Sanjay Datta told PTI.  State-run players saw 11 per cent rise in incurred claims, whereas this was up 22.74 per cent for private players during the year.  For the industry the incurred claims increased by 15.32 per cent up from 13.16 per cent in FY13.  "We have brought down our underwriting losses through measures like claims management and better underwriting profits that largely came from investment operations using the  cash flow," New India Assurance director K Sanath Kumar said,  adding, "we made operating surplus of Rs 150 crore in the  policyholders' fund during 2013-14." 

Among various segments,health and motor insurance had a  high claims ratio at 100.73 and 79.50 per cent respectively.  Non-life insurance industry had underwritten a total  premium of  Rs 70,610 crore in FY14 as against Rs 62,973 crore  in 2012-13, a growth of 12.13 per cent as against an increase  of 19.10 per cent recorded in the previous year.