Metlife to pump in $100 mn in India by June 08

New Delhi, Oct 5: Insurance major Metlife today said it will pump in over USD 100 million in the next 20 months, to expand its business in India, which will include tripling the number of its branches to 150 and ramping up its agent force to 50,000.

''We see India as an imporant and stratgic destination to help us fuel our growth and, as a part of our expansion plans in the region, we plan to triple our branches here from the present 50, besides building our agent force from 10,000 to 50,000 in the next year-and-a-half at an investment of over 100 million dollar,'' MetLife Chairman and CEO Rob Henrikson told reporters here.

The company also plans to increase the number of cities where it is present, and get into other Tier II and Tier III cities, ''as India is an important part of the long-term growth strategies of MetLife.'' Following the FDI norm in the insurance sector, out of the planned investment of 100 million dollar, MetLife International Holdings will put in 26 million dollar while its Indian arm Melife India will pump the remaining.

The proposal to hike the FDI limit of insurance companies investing in their Indian subsidiaries from 26 per cent to 49 per cent was cleared by the government in July 2004, but is still awaiting the nod of the parliament.

Mr Henrikson said he had met with some government officials while he was visiting India for the first time after assuming office as CEO, to discuss the issue.

''I met government regulators in India in this regard and they were supportive of increasing the limit to 49 per cent,'' he said.

The authorised capital of the bank at present is Rs 530 crore, and has increased by Rs 175 crore from Rs 355 crore, which the company raised last year.

The total premium collected by Metlife India between April-September this year is Rs 142.4 crore, which includes Rs 45.8 crore renewal premium income and Rs 96.6 crore first premium income.

''We are targetting between Rs 250-300 crore premium collection by April, 2007,'' Mr Relan said.

He added that the company is aiming a break-even in the next 3-4 years.

The company is also keen to focus on expanding its traditional as well as Unit Linked platforms that primarily drive its growth.

Additionally the company will focus on areas of expansion with lower start-up costs and further develop distribution channels outside the traditional agency sales such as bancassurance.

At present the company has a tie-up with three banks for bancassurance -- Jammu and Kashmir Bank, Karnataka Bank and Dhanalakshmi Bank.

''We are open to consolidaion opportunities and doing further business with other banks,'' Metlife India MD&Country Manager Rajesh Relan said.

The company has four ULIP products in its basket and 10 traditional products.

Metlife India Insurance Company Pvt Ltd is the Indian arm of Metlife Inc, and was incorporated as a joint venture between MetLife International Holdings, the Jammu and Kashmir Bank, M Pallonji and Co Pvt Ltd and other private investors.

MetLife Inc does business in he US, Asia Pacific and Europe.

UNI