Allianz Insurance Lanka to commence Life business
Allianz Insurance Lanka has forwarded an application to Insurance
Regulator IBSL (Insurance Board of Sri Lanka) to commence Life insurance
business in Sri Lanka.
Executive Vice President of Allianz SE, Munich, for Asia; the Middle
East, and the North Africa Division, Heinz Dollberg, was in Colombo this
week, to present this application.
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Heinz Dollberg |
Approval of the application enables the setting up of a separate
operational entity to manage Life business in Sri Lanka. Explaining the
Munich-based Insurance conglomerate's decision to venture into the Life
arena in Sri Lanka, Dollberg said that their Sri Lankan subsidiary is
developing extremely well, and they were satisfied with its progress,
premium-wise as well as the bottom line. "It is not always the case that
a barely three year old company can develop this fast."
"The prevailing non tariff market in Sri Lanka is an interesting one
for Allianz. It is not overcrowded. Also, Sri Lanka has a very favorable
environment for foreign investment because foreigners are allowed 100%
ownership of businesses, unlike in several other countries in the
region. We intend developing the market. We will observe the rules of
the market and want to be treated like other local market insurers.
"We will be growing the business in Sri Lanka, and will be building a
direct sales force, since one can't rely only on brokers to sell Life
business, so this will mean more people and more branches very soon, and
we will be going into other areas of Sri Lanka to grow the business."
Allianz Insurance Lanka, the fully owned subsidiary of Allianz SE,
recently recorded a phenomenal increase of 258% in profitability,
posting a Profit Before Tax of Rs 53.2 million for 2007.
Allianz commands about 2 per cent of the General insurance business
in Sri Lanka, but intends to expand market share to 10 per cent in the
next ten years. "Allianz is known in Germany by 99.9% of the people. We
are confident that we will achieve the same recognition in Sri Lanka as
well," declared Dollberg. |
