"We are bullish about the director-officer liability policy and would be rolling out the product from next financial year. We would be taking the help of our foreign partner Sanlam, who are specialists in the field," JS Gujral, chief executive officer of Shriram General Insurance told Financial Chronicle.

Though in existence for long, the `director-officer liability' policy gained popularity after the Satyam fiasco, which put independent directors in a fix.

Meanwhile, the company would not enter any new segment such as health for the next two years, a top official said. At present, motor contributes 97 per cent of its product portfolio, while marine and engineering accounts for the rest.

"We are aware that the health insurance segment is growing 45 per cent per annum. But, we do not want to enter the segment just to diversify business. We would only enter segments where the pricing is right and where there is not deep discount. We see the price discounting to continue for the next two years and we would wait for the segments to mature before making a foray," Gujral added.

SGICL, which is a joint venture between Chennaibased Shriram Capital (74 per cent) and South Africa's Sanlam (26 per cent), aims to close with a premium of Rs 725 crore in financial year 2011. As of September 30, gross return premium was Rs 316.93 crore.

It also plans to expand into smaller towns where insurance penetration and competition is less. It would add 50 more branches, with head count of 20 people in each branch, which would expand its network to 118.

"We are planning to open branch for women in multiple locations and also keen on recruiting differently abled people. We would be looking to add 1,000 officers in marketing," Gujral said.
Source :- My Digitalfc