MUMBAI: Generali Central Insurance, the general insurance joint venture of the Italian insurer of the same name and Central Bank of India, is on course for a sustained growth, aiming to nearly double the gross written premium income to Rs 10,000-crore by 2030 from around Rs 5,500 crore now, on the back of the equity and distribution boost I has got with the entry of the public sector bank as an equity partner owning 26 percent since June this year.
The bank converted its debt into equity through the bankruptcy process and owns 26 percent each in the life and non-life arms of the Italian major, which entered the country in 2006 for a 25 percent stake for Rs 1,253 crore with a joint venture with Future group and one year later in non-life arm of the same now crippled group. In May 2022, the Trieste-Italy-headquartered Generali became among the first foreign insurers to increase the stake to the maximum permissible FDI limit of 74 percent in both the joint ventures.
Other overseas insurers with 74 percent holding are Ageas in Ageas Federal Life Insurance (earlier IDBI Federal Life) to since 2022; Aviva in Aviva Life Insurance joint venture with Dabur; Nippon Life in ex-Reliance Life and Reliance General insurance and Zurich owing 70 percent in Kotak General Insurance.
The Parliament is likely to pass the Insurance Amendment Bill, that seeks to allow 100 percent FDI in insurance during the ongoing Winter session.
Talking to TNIE, Anup Rau, managing director and chief executive of Generali Central Insurance said, the company is likely to close the current fiscal with a gross written premium of Rs 5,550 crore, clipping at a 14 percent annual growth in the past five years, when the premium income was just about Rs 1,700 crore.
“Going forward too, I see the growth rate clipping at the same rate and doubling to Rs 10,000-crore milestone by 2030 from around Rs 5,500 crore that we expect to close this fiscal with,” he said, refusing to give a target for profitability but saying the company has been profitable since 2017.
On the impact of the recent removal GST from all individual insurance premium including health insurance and resultant removal of input tax credit on profitability, Rau said it will be negligible as their retail portfolio is too small and also ruled out passing the same to customers by way of increasing the premium.
Of course it will have some impact on the retail health segment but that is comparatively very small though health is our single largest business vertical, but most of the income come from group and not retail which is only about 6-7 percent of the total. So there isn’t much impact on us and thus there is no way that we will increase the premium. We have already been passing on the entire GST benefit to our new and renewal customers, he added.
Currently, its business verticals are as follows: Health insurance with a premium income of Rs 1,300 crore as of October 2025 and this is the largest with 37 percent of the overall topline Of this group health is Rs 1,100 crore, amounting to 32% of the overall topline.
Motor comes next with another Rs 1,100 crore as on October amounting to 32 percent of the overall topline and crop business is worth Rs 200 crore amounting to 6 percent of the overall topline.
When asked will be the business mix going forward, he said, it will remain more or less same as too much concentration risk is risky.
On the new areas of business that the company is looking at, Rau said, they are looking at the emerging surety bonds business, that the National Highways Authority is using now.
Generali is among the largest global insurance and asset management providers, and was established in 1831, and is present in over 50 countries today, with a total premium income of 95.2 billion euros in 2024. Its 87,000 employees serve over 71 million customers, mostly in Europe, Asia and Latin America.