Private general insurer Shriram General Insurance is eyeing a higher share of the non-motor business, as it moves to reduce over-dependence on a single business segment.
Neeraj Prakash, MD, Shriram General Insurance, said that at present 95 percent of the business is motor and only 5 percent is non-motor.
"We want to bring the non-motor business to 10 percent by the end of the fiscal. Focus is on retail non-motor business and corporate business like fire, marine and engineering," he said.
For FY21, the insurer saw a 13.3 percent year-on-year drop in gross direct premium income to Rs 2,138.87 crore. Prakash explained that this was due to the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown.
"If you look at commercial vehicles segment, there was impact because due to lockdown there was a slump. Hence, we are looking to expand our share in other businesses apart from motor," he added.
Here, he said segments like shopkeepers insurance or fire-loss of profit insurance are areas where the company would like to offer products.
The combined ratio stood at 104.17 percent for FY21 as against 90.92 percent a year ago. Solvency stood at 3.63 as against the regulatory requirement of 1.50.
Shriram General is the general insurance arm of Chennai-based financial conglomerate Shriram Group. South Africa's Sanlam holds 22.92 percent stake in the venture as per its public disclosures as of March 31, 2021.
Prakash explained that Sanlam is open to increase its stake in the joint venture to up to 74 percent. Under new foreign direct investment (FDI) rules, the maximum limit for insurance FDI has been hiked to 74 percent from 49 percent.
Going forward, Prakash said that the thrust will be on expanding their distribution segment through their retail agents.
"We have 35,000 plus retail agents. We are a company for aam-aadmi brand and will continue to offer products for the common man which is our core segment," he said.