Chennai: All the 12 players in the domestic general insurance industry are competing each other to grab a sizeable chunk of corporate policies (mainly fire, burglary and personal insurance policies) that are coming up for renewal on 1 April 2003. Nearly 65 per cent of corporate insurance policies generally fall due on that date.

And the four government-owned non-life insurers are resorting to fire-fighting measures, since the private sector has started making serious inroads into their domain. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) figures suggest that private players as a whole have booked around Rs 350-crore fire insurance premium during April 2002-January 2003.

Leading the pack is ICICI Lombard General Insurance, which is tapping the major accounts held by the government insurers. The company has booked Rs 105-crore premium under its fire insurance portfolio out of a total premium income of Rs 174 crore for the 10-month period this fiscal.

The company is also the first non-life insurer to sign its reinsurance agreements for the next fiscal. According to K Bharathan, regional head (south), the company has signed up with Munich Re for its reinsurance needs.

Following ICICI Lombard are Iffco Tokio (Rs 87 crore), Reliance (Rs 50 crore), Bajaj Allianz (Rs 39 crore) Royal Sundaram (Rs 35 crore), Tata AIG (Rs 28 crore) and Cholamandalam General Insurance (Rs 3.99 crore). The private sector as a whole has booked around Rs 350 crore as fire insurance premium.

Cholamandalam General Insurance and HDFC Chubb General Insurance started their operations only in October 2002. Says Satish Deshpande, head claims-reinsurance, Cholamandalam: “We are also gearing up for corporate business and most of our reinsurance is with the national reinsurer, General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC).”

HDFC Chubb is, however, playing a different tune in the market with its focus on specialised products like directors an officers’ liability policy, overseas travel, group personal accident insurance, and errors and omissions insurance policy.

“We are in the learning curve. We will, in due course, tap the fire insurance business but the initial focus is speciality products and risk management solutions,” says Shrirang V Samant, chief executive officer, HDFC Chubb.

In the meantime, the entire non-life insurance industry has clocked a total premium income of Rs 11,558 crore up to January 2003 this fiscal. While the four government-owned non-life insurers account for 90.54 per cent, the balance is shared by eight new private players, says IRDA.

In the motor insurance business Bajaj Allianz leads the private sector, earning Rs 136-crore premium for the period under review. It is followed by Royal Sundaram (Rs 64 crore), Tata AIG (Rs 62 crore), Iffco Tokio (Rs 19 crore), ICICI Lombard (Rs 1.32 crore), Reliance (Rs 5.85 crore), Cholamandalam (Rs 90 lakh) and HDFC Chubb (Rs 3.92 crore).

The premium booked by the private sector under other major business segments are engineering (Rs 105 crore), health (Rs 68 crore) and marine (Rs 64 crore).