Kolkata, Feb 16: With the Life Insurance business growing at the rate of 150 per cent year-on-year

Kolkata, Feb 16: With the Life Insurance business growing at the rate of 150 per cent year-on-year basis, the valuations of most private insurers have been expanding by 20 to 60 per cent, a recent Merrill Lynch study revealed.

Elaborating the growth prospects of the private life insurers, the study mentioned that the valuation of the private insurance companies would double by 2010.

Merrill Lynch, in its study, has ranked ICICI Prudential Life as the most valued company among the private life insurers.

Merrill Lynch experts believe that the growth prospects for ICICI Prudential would be largely driven by product innovation, aggressive marketing and cross selling in future. The company was valued at $3,744 million in 2006-07 and estimated to go up to US $9,304 by 2010.

The report has valued HDFC Standard Life at an estimated US $ 1,150 million in 2006-07 (expected to grow to $2,724 million in (FY10), Max New York Life at an estimated $712 million in FY07 (expected to grow to $1,638 million in FY10), Bajaj Allianz at an estimated $2,035 million in FY07 (to grow to an estimated $4,322 million in FY10) and SBI Life at an estimated $1,162 million (to grow to an estimated $2,854 million in FY10).

The research report has valued the Indian private life insurance companies on the basis of their New Business Achieved Profit (NBAP), which is the present value of the profits arising from new business during the year.

UNI