Kotak Insurance to open 24 branches in India, besides Singapore, HK

Anand (Gujarat), May 11 (UNI) Even as Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Ltd plans to open 24 new branches, bulk of them being in Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana and Kerala, it has global plans to open two overseas branches in Singapore and Hong Kong, during the current financial year.

Sharing the company's growth vision with reporters here today, it's Managing Director Gaurang Shah said, ''10 out of 46 existing branches in the country are in Gujarat as it plans to open 10 more in the state during 2006-07.'' Mr Shah, who was in this milk town to in the company's eleventh branch in the State, said the next in line are Bharuch, Valsad, Bhavnagar and the second branch in Ahmedabad.

Maharashtra will have its new branches at Kolhapur and Pune.

Kerala will have at Kottayam and Trichur. The bank's other two focussed States being Punjab and Haryana, the new branches will be in Amritsar, Jallandhar, Ambala, Hissar and Rohtak. It already has branches in Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Patiala and Karnal.

As to company's overseas exposure, he said, the company already has branches in London and Dubai as it plans to go for second phase of expansion as a global company.

Mr Shah, with eight years experience with the Kotak Group and 13 years elsewhere, is also upbeat about increasing the company's turnover from Rs 640 crore last fiscal to Rs 1,000 crore in the current year.

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