Star Union Dai-ichi Life looks to increase business in south India

Star Union Dai-ichi (SUD) Life Insurance Co Ltd, a dual venture of public sector Bank of India and Union Bank of India and Japanese insurance firm Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company, is looking at expanding its presence in south India by opening area offices for back-end support to its customers.

The company would open around 12 area offices in the next nine months in the south. It has a presence through 1,150 branches of the partner banks in the region, and four regional offices in south at Chennai, Bangalore, Kochi and Hyderabad.

The expansion is part of its plan to set up a total of 60 area offices throughout the country in the next nine months, in two phases.

"We are planning to open area offices in Tier II cities in south India, to improve services to the customers. We expect new business premium of Rs 2,000 crore in the current fiscal, of which around Rs 250 crore will be from the region," said D Krishnamurthy, vice president — southern region, Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance.

The company launched two new products, a unit-linked insurance product(Ulip) Dhan Suraksha Express and a traditional endowment policy Defined Growth Endowment Plan, here today.

It earned new business premium of Rs 758 crore during 2010-11, of which almost Rs 100 crore was from the south. The total premium income including the renewal premium of the company was Rs 933 crore, marking a growth of 76 % over last year.

Source: [Business-Standard]