Tata AIG Life Becomes Tata AIA Life

The life insurance unit of Tata AIG will be called Tata AIA Life. After the 2008 crisis, American International Group (AIG) sold its 26% stake in Tata Sons to its subsidiary American International Assurance (AIA) to exit the joint venture in 2009.

Commenting on the name change, Mr M. Suresh, Managing Director of the company, said, “Only the name changes…nothing else does.”

Hong Kong-based AIA went public in Hong Kong in 2010 and raised $20.51 billion that was the third largest globally at the time of listing.

About the current pause in the insurance sector, Mr Suresh said, “Insurance business is a marathon. It needs to be pushed. Customer retention is important in the current scenario. It is not as easy as it was 10 years ago.”

He believes there is going to be a shift from pure savings to long-term savings for the Indian customers hereon. The company reported a net profit of Rs 260 crore in FY12 compared with Rs 52 crore in the previous year.

The total premium income in the year ended March 31, stood at Rs 3,630 crore (Rs 3,985 crore in 2010-11). Of this, the new premium segment contributed about Rs 940 crore.

The insurance company had a 3.2 per cent market share in premiums written among private insurance companies as on March 31, 2012.

Tata AIA’s total assets under management (AUM) increased by 15 per cent to Rs 14,519 crore from Rs 12,622 crore in the last fiscal.