Shriram General Insurance, which is working to bring down the share of motor insurance in the overall portfolio from over 90%, plans to launch surety bonds as part of a product diversification strategy. Managing Director and CEO Anil Aggarwal tells Narayanan V about the company’s diversification plans, gross written premium (GWP) target and trends in the insurance segment. Excerpts:
Motor Insurance premiums were flat for the industry. How do you see the future growth?
We have delivered a strong performance in the first half of FY26, driven by a sustained momentum in the motor insurance portfolio. Our GWP grew by 28% year-on-year to ₹2,045 crore, which is four times the 7% average growth rate of the general insurance industry. The non-motor segment, including fire, crop and engineering, grew by 31%. Our market share has gone up to 1.24% from 1.04% last year. In the motor insurance ranking, we are at number 12 among private players.
Our business has not been impacted by new vehicle sales because close to 90% of the business comes from used vehicles. Eighty-four percent of the business is from commercial vehicles and the rest is from two-wheelers and private cars. For the current fiscal, I am expecting to close the book at around ₹4,500 crore of GWP. For the coming year, the plan is of around ₹5,200-5,300 crore. We aim to achieve around ₹8,000 crore by 2030.
Motor accounts for over 90% of your GWP. What are your diversification plans?
Our aim is to increase the pie of non-motor, which is now more than 9%. We want it to be at 10% by this year, and by 2030, it should be 15%. At present, 91% of the overall GWP is coming from motor, followed by fire and personal accident at 3% each. Miscellaneous, engineering and health care account for the rest. In health, we took the baby steps last year only. In the first half, we had around ₹4 crore in premium, and are expecting to close the year at around ₹8-10 crore. We are not very much bullish on the segment but are developing the skill and understanding the business.
Plans of product diversification
General insurers are launching parametric cover and surety bond insurance. What is your approach?
We have approached some state governments which were planning to launch parametric products for their population. For instance, we have had discussion with the Odisha government, but things are in the pipeline. I think only one or two states have implemented the parametric cover.
Surety bond is definitely a growing market. The National Highways Authority of India has taken a lot of steps, because instead of giving bank guarantees – the cost of a bank guarantee is 3% and even they need some assets as collateral — insurance is serving the purpose. We are evaluating this. Hopefully, we may launch that product in six months.
On third party rate
The revision of third-party motor insurance premium is overdue. How do you see its impact?
Everyone is demanding an increase in the third party rate. We want rationalisation of rates. Not just increase of rates – there must be some increase in rates, but there are some portfolios that require rate reduction. For example, in the school bus segment, I want the rate to fall by more than 50% or even 60% because the segment is always profitable for all the insurance companies because of very limited movement of the vehicle. But there are some segments like heavy commercial vehicle where we want a rate increase.
