State-owned New India Assurance Company Ltd, India’s largest insurer, has reported a significant increase in its net profit at Rs.748 crore for the quarter ended 

30 September, 2017, as against Rs.260 crore in a year ago period. This was its first results post listing on the stock exchanges in early November. The gross written premium was Rs.6489 crore, a growth of 12 per cent compared to the same quarter last year.

G Srinivasan, CMD of New India Assurance, attributed the impressive performance to drop in claims ratio and operating expense ratio, supported by various steps taken by the company. Some of the initiatives included repricing of health insurance products and more efficient measures in claims control. Retail health premiums increased by 25 per cent, while corporate health premiums rose between 20 and 40 per cent. Claims ratio in health had come down from 111 per cent to 102 per cent while motor claims ratio was down from nearly 88 per cent to 83 per cent. Operating expenses were also down by 4 per cent, mainly due to scaling up of business without any increase in costs. This helped in reduction of the combined ratio at 111.76 per cent, against 119.81 per cent in the previous year.

The company declared an interim dividend of 75 per cent. Srinivasan said the industry would grow 18 to 20 per cent in the current fiscal and New India’s growth will also be in line with the market. New India has a share of 15 per cent in the Rs.1.30 lakh crore general insurance market. The company’s solvency margin was at a comfortable 2.24. The company had raised Rs.9600 crore through its IPO.