Birla Sun Life on expansion spree, increase manpower,branches

Kolkata, Jun 13(UNI) In a bid to stop slowdown of business growth, Birla Sun Life Insurance's(BSLI) has planned to increase market share by almost doubling the sales force to one lakh and set up an additional 200 branches in the first half of the fiscal.

The market share of the company had slipped to 5 per cent in 2006-07 from 20 per three years back. The company has increased the number of sales force to 58,000 last year. Currently the total number of company branches are 137.

Speaking to mediaprsons here today, BSLI Director(Finance) S K Mitra said in order to accelerate growth, the company would introduce a number of new products in the current year apart from increasing the sales force. Last year the company introduced Supreme Life and a number of other policies.

''We are also targeting growth of annualised premium income from Rs 953 crore to Rs 2000 crore,'' Mr Mitra said.

The company has infused capital of Rs 672 crore in the last fiscal and another Rs 700 crore would be infused this year. The total Asset Under Management(AUM) is around Rs 4,000 crore.

BLSI, which is joint venture between the Aditya Birla Group and Sun Life Financial Inc, today launched a unit-linked insurance plan, "Gold Plus". The minimum premium for this policy is Rs 10,000 and the entry age is from 18 to 70 years.

Speaking at the programme, BLSI Vice-President Fabien Jeudy said that unique feature of the plan is that it would allow 100 per cent equity exposure and investment options in seven funds.

UNI