New Delhi, Nov 24: ICICI Prudential Life Insurance today said it will hike capital by Rs 50 crore to Rs 575 crore by the end of this fiscal, after posting over 170 per cent jump in business till September. "We will need one more tranche of Rs 50 crore of capital infusion in February next year. The promoters have infused Rs 100 crore already in this fiscal," ICICI Prudential Life's CEO, Shikha Sharma, told reporters here today.
The capital base of the leading private insurer would surge to Rs 575 crore after the capital investment by the two promoters ICICI Bank and UK-based Prudential PLC.
The company is open to hike foreign shareholding when government permits, although Sharma said it was upto promoters to decide on it.
Prudential has so far invested over Rs 130 crore in the Indian subsidiary.
The need for equity infusion in the company comes in the wake of a whopping 170 per cent rise in premium income to Rs 184 crore in the first half of this fiscal, from Rs 68 crore in April-September 2002.
ICICI Prudential became the first insurer to sell over half a million policies, of which 14 per cent has been in the rural areas, Sharma said.
Bureau Report