IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company is a joint venture of India's public sector banks (

Bank of Baroda Bank of Baroda (BOB or BoB) is an Indian public sector bank headquartered in Vadodara, Gujarat. It is the second largest public sector bank in India after State Bank of India, with 132 million customers, a total business of US$218 billion, ...

(. The company has paid-up share capital of 663 crore. It was incorporated in November 2009 and is headquartered in Mumbai. It recorded more than INR 2 billion in turnover in just four and a half months since the insurance company became operational.

Business model

IndiaFirst Life Insurance follows the "

Bancassurance Bancassurance is a relationship between a bank and an insurance company that is aimed at offering insurance products or insurance benefits to the bank's customers. In this partnership, bank staff and tellers become the point of sale and point o ...

" (Bank Insurance Model) which uses the existing customer base of the promoter banks. As of June 2021, the company has more than 3100 employees.

Financials

The company ended FY20 with INR 3,360 crore worth of total premiums collected and AUM of Rs 14,723 crore. The company has had a CAGR of 40% in the last five years in Individual New Business APE, as compared to Life Insurance Industry growth of 12% CAGR during the same period. The life insurance company has reported a 25% growth in individual New Business (NB) Annual Premium Equivalent (APE) in Financial Year (FY) 2019-20. IndiaFirst Life grew at 5.2 times the private industry growth rate of 5% and at 4.0 times the overall industry growth rate of 6% (including LIC). For the month of March 2020, IndiaFirst Life ranked 10th in the private sector in Individual NB APE and ranked 12th in the private sector for FY 2020. It also observed a claim settlement ratio of 98.56%, supported over 13800 families and paid claims in excess of INR 346.82 crore. Paid group claims in excess of INR 1056.5 crores (includes PMJJBY).

Sale of stake

In June 2018, one of the original founders,

Legal & General Legal & General Group plc, commonly known as Legal & General, is a British multinational financial services and asset management company headquartered in London, England. Its products and services include investment management, lifetime mortg ...

, sold its stake to private equity firm,

Warburg Pincus Warburg Pincus LLC is a global private equity firm, headquartered in New York, with offices in the United States, Europe, Brazil, China, Southeast Asia and India. Warburg has been a private equity investor since 1966. The firm currently has over ...

for Rs 7.1 Billion. Other stakeholders include

General Atlantic General Atlantic (also known as "GA") is an American growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for global growth companies, headquartered in New York, United States. The firm was founded in 1980 as the captive investment team for ...

, Ergo International AG,

Manulife Financial Corp Manulife Financial Corporation (also known as Financière Manuvie in Quebec) is a Canadian multinational insurance company and financial services provider headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The company operates in Canada and Asia as "Manulife" a ...

, and Canadian billionaire,

Prem Watsa Prem Watsa (born 5 August 1950) is an Indian-Canadian billionaire businessman who is the founder, chairman, and chief executive of Fairfax Financial Holdings, based in Toronto. He has been called the "Canadian Warren Buffett." He was awarded th ...

’s Fairfax. Legal & General sold its stake as it was restructuring its business in the UK and the US markets. In November 2018, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority gave its in-principle approval to IndiaFirst Life Insurance for the stake sale from Legal & General to Warburg Pincus. In February 2019, another promoter, Andhra Bank, announced plans to sell its 30% stake for ₹ 9 Billion.

History

IndiaFirst Life Insurance was incorporated by Bank of Baroda,

Andhra Bank Andhra Bank was a medium-sized public sector bank (PSB) of India, with a network of 2885 branches, 4 extension counters, 38 satellite offices and 3798 automated teller machines (ATMs) as of 31 March 2019. During 2011–12, the bank entered t ...

(now

Union Bank of India Union Bank of India, commonly referred to as Union Bank or UBI, is an Indian public sector bank headquartered in Mumbai. It has 120+ million customers and a total business of US$106 billion. After the amalgamation with Corporation Bank and A ...

), and

in 2009. Legal & General later sold its stake to Carmel Point Investment India Private Limited, a corporation incorporated under the laws of

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

and owned by private equity funds managed by

LLC. This company was the first one in the history of IndiaFirst Life Insurance, wherein a private equity fund has taken an interest in a life insurance company. In April 2020, a merger took place between Andhra Bank with the Union Bank of India. It changed the shareholding pattern of IndiaFirst Life Insurance to Bank of Baroda (44%), Union Bank of India (30%) and Carmel Point Investments India Private Limited (26%).

Management

The MD & CEO of the company is R. M. Vishakha and Deputy CEO is Rushabh Gandhi.

Products

IndiaFirst Life offers a diverse series of 31 need-based products (), catering to varied customer segments, leveraging multiple distribution capabilities, and augmenting various investment options.

References

{{Insurance in India Life insurance companies of India Bank of Baroda Financial services companies established in 2009 Financial services companies based in Mumbai Warburg Pincus companies Indian companies established in 2009 2009 establishments in Maharashtra