Chola MS is re-entering crop insurance segment

Chennai: Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company Ltd (Chola MS) is re-entering the crop insurance segment after a break of about four years. The insurer is looking for operations in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and parts of Maharashtra and Rajasthan.At a press conference here on Thursday, V Suryanarayanan, managing director, Chola MS announced that the company is re-entering the crop insurance space from this financial year. “We have secured re-insurance arrangements for that as well. We will have numbers coming in from crop insurance also in the current year, which will help in getting a more balanced mix of business across lines,” he said. Noting that some operating provisions have changed over the past three years, he said, this led them to have a relook for a re-entry into crop insurance.According to him, the size of the crop insurance industry is at 25,000 crore, of which about 13,000 crore is dealt by the private insurance companies. Chola MS exited crop insurance in FY19 when the share in the segment was about 10%-11% in their business portfolio. “The key problem at that point of time was non-receipt of premiums from the government, which was one reason. Now, there are much more enabling provisions and governments’ commitment to pay. There is a promise from the government to sort out issues,” he said.Meanwhile, Chola MS, a joint venture between Murugappa Group and Japan’s Mitsui Sumitomo insurance group, ended FY23 with gross written premium (GWP) at Rs 6,200 Crore and a growth of 27.6%, when compared with 4,854 crore in the corresponding year of 2021-22. It recorded a growth in all lines of businesses including fire, health and motor. “Health insurance premium of most insurers gone up in the past 18-24 months. We had to come with an increase of 17%-18% in October 2022,” he said, adding that the medical inflation was at 11%-12%.Suryanarayanan further said, their present market share is at 2.8% among multi line players and targeting a share of 5% in the future.