Bhargav Dasgupta, the Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Lombard, one of India's leading general insurance companies believes that ease of doing business has helped the company launch new products and expand its reach in the market. However, he remains cautious on the motor segment, particularly the private car segment.
“Dynamics of the industry are changing. There are a lot of regulatory changes that are being brought about which improves the ease of doing business and allows us to launch new products which earlier would take a lot of time to get approval.”
“The only segment that we are still cautious is the motor segment, particularly the private car segment where we are finding that the combined ratio for the industry is roughly about 118 percent if you see the nine months data. 118 percent combined ratio doesn’t make it viable to ride this business,” Dasgupta said.
Also Read: India may soon announce retail trade policy, accident insurance scheme for GST-registered traders
He further said the health segment is growing faster than the market, and ICICI Lombard is well-positioned to take advantage of this trend. Dasgupta believes that the market growth should be between 15-20 percent this year, and the company's strategic initiatives are aligned with this growth target.
“Health is growing faster than market and we believe it will continue to do so. We think we will grow faster than market. We believe market growth this year should be within 15-20 percent and our combined ratio which was about 104 percent last year, over the next two years we want to bring it to 102 percent,” he added.
In terms of pricing, Dasgupta feels that a price increase of 7-10 percent will be adequate to maintain profitability and ensure sustainable growth. He emphasised the importance of balancing the pricing strategy with customer expectations and market dynamics.