Mumbai, Oct 29 (PTI) A one-time income of Rs 170 crorefrom its reinsurance portfolio pushed up the net profit of SBIGeneral Insurance to a massive Rs 251 crore in the Septemberquarter, from Rs 5.5 crore in the year-ago period.
The company's gross premium increased to Rs 926 crorefrom Rs 690 crore a year ago, of which crop insurance alonecontributed Rs 306 crore in the reporting period.
"With a one-time income of Rs 170 crore fromreinsurance portfolio, we had an underwriting profit of Rs 156crore in the second quarter against a loss of Rs 78 crore inyear-ago period," Pushan Mahapatra, the managing director andchief executive of SBI General Insurance, told PTI.
Driven by motor and fire covers, including homeinsurance, health insurance and farm insurance, the company istargeting a growth of 40 per cent in its gross premium to Rs3,600 crore during the current fiscal, he said, adding, "Wewill have a balanced growth between topline and bottomline.""We are looking for an IPO in a medium-term," he said.
The company, with 2,600 employees, has been recognisedas an employer of choice and is planning to ramp up itshead count by 20 per cent during the current fiscal.
The firm, Mahapatra said, generates almost 55 percent of its annual premium from SBI Group and other regionalbanks and would bring it down to 50 per cent in future.
The company had a claim ratio of 76 per cent from 80per cent a year ago while the reinsurance ratio stood at 94per cent against 41 per cent during the reporting period.
As of now, the company has got 8,944 agents on itsfold. "We want to increase the number of agents working withus to around 10,000 by the fiscal-end," he said. PTI KD BENGK.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.
