Chennai: The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has decided to increase its equity exposure by Rs10,000 crore. According to chairman A K Shukla, the bulk of it will be in infrastructure company stocks. "We are long term investors as our liabilities - life insurance policies - are long term. So infrastructure stocks are a better bet."

He was in Chennai to lay the foundation stone for the Rs7-crore housing complex being built by LIC for Indian Overseas Bank (IOB). The land was initially owned by LIC, but sold it to IOB and also agreed to build the apartments.

According to him, LIC will be developing around 70 plots in the near future. The market value of the 70 properties will be around Rs1,000 crore. "Our return on properties is around three per cent. We want to increase that," he said.

Speaking about the core business he said the corporation is logging good growth. "We have achieved 12 per cent growth in terms of the number of policies sold this fiscal. We are also increasing our market share." According to him the corporation has a target to increase the first premium income by 30 per cent this year. Last year the first premium income was Rs15,840.67 crore

In order to extend its reach, LIC will open 30 satellite branches in the newly developed areas.