Collective market share of the four public sector general insurance companies fell 175 basis points year-on-year to 32.27% at the end of 2022-23.
During FY23, every state-run general insurer — New India Assurance, United India Insurance, Oriental Insurance Company and National Insurance Company — lost market share in terms of gross direct premium underwritten, amid intense competition from private peers, data from the General Insurance Council showed.
Market share of New India Assurance, which leads the non-life insurance space, fell 133 basis points to 13.42% while United India Insurance lost 25 bps YoY to 6.87%. While the market share of Oriental Insurance Company fell 13 bps to 6.08%, the same for National Insurance Company declined by a marginal 4 bps to 5.90% at the end of FY23.
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As state-run general insurers continue to lose market share, it reflects weakness in their underwriting performance, constraining their overall profitability and solvency position, according to analysts. High underwriting losses and very low solvency ratios leave limited headroom for United India Insurance, Oriental Insurance Company and National Insurance Company to underwrite new business.
Notably, for the non-life insurance sector, health segment premium has been a major driver for growth, but this has been led by standalone health insurance companies — all private sector players. In group health, New India Assurance has been ceding market share. In the motor segment, too, private players, with more agile distribution and underwriting processes, have overtaken the public sector companies.
During the last fiscal, market shares of major private general insurers such as ICICI Lombard General Insurance, HDFC Ergo, Tata AIG General Insurance and SBI General Insurance increased. For ICICI Lombard General Insurance, market share rose 4 bps to 8.18%, while for HDFC Ergo, it was up by 37 bps to 6.48%. At the end of FY23, HDFC Ergo became the second-largest player in the private sector and the fourth-largest player in the overall non-life insurance industry. Bajaj Allianz General Insurance lost market share by 23 basis points to 5.97%.
For ICICI Lombard General Insurance, premium for the last fiscal grew 16.96% to Rs 21,025.09 crore, while for HDFC Ergo, it rose 23.25% to Rs 16,635.81 crore. Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, Tata AIG General Insurance and SBI General Insurance witnessed 12.04%, 31.43% and 18.13% year-on-year increase in premiums to Rs 15,336.64 crore, Rs 13,176 crore and Rs 10,828.40 crore, respectively.
Among leading standalone health insurers, Star Health and Allied Insurance and Care Health Insurance registered 12.98% and 32.48% y-o-y growth in gross direct premiums at Rs 12,950.94 crore and Rs 5,141.53 crore, respectively, for FY23. While Star Health, the largest player in the standalone health space, lost market share by 15 bps to 5.04%, Care Health’s market share increased 24 bps to 2%. Interestingly, collective market share of five standalone health insurers stood at 10.21% at end of FY23, up from 9.45% at the end of FY22.
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Collective gross direct premium underwritten for non-life insurance companies grew 16.36% to Rs 2.57 trillion, from Rs 2.21 trillion in FY22, according to the General Insurance Council’ flash report.
The report showed that during FY23, gross direct premiums underwritten for 24 general insurance companies grew 16.20% to Rs 2.15 trillion, while for five standalone health insurers, it increased 25.76% to Rs 26,242.33 crore.
New India Assurance saw a 5.87% Y-o-Y increase in premium underwritten to Rs 34,487.15 crore in the last fiscal, while for United India Insurance, it rose by 12.22% to Rs 17,643.32 crore. Premiums for Oriental Insurance and National Insurance rose 13.85% and 15.47% to Rs 15,609.57 crore and Rs 15,155.76 crore, respectively.
