Aditya Birla Fin diversifies into health insurance with ABHICL

Mumbai : Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG) launched its standalone health insurance arm under brand Aditya Birla Health Insurance (ABHICL).

ABHICL is joint venture between the Aditya Birla Group and diversified financial services in South Africa MMI Holdings (MMI).

"With ABHICL, we want to focus as much on health as on insurance. Through our range of retail and group health insurance offerings, we will look to expand the category as it will find relevance among a wider set of customers health conscious and others dealing with the most common chronic lifestyle diseases," ABHICL CEO Mayank Bathwal told reporters.

Despite being a late entrant, the 51:49 per cent JV aims to expand the 27,000 crore category, making it relevant to the young and health conscious, in addition to those dealing with chronic lifestyle conditions.

"We have made Rs 250 crore capital infusion and will initially begin with seven key cities Bangaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune and expand to 100 cities in a couple of years," Bathwal said here.

The company is looking at multiple distribution channels, including bank assurance, agency, online and brokers, he said.

"We are in talks with almost all banks and are getting positive response. We will soon announce our bank assurance partnership," he added.

Aditya Birla Group Chief Executive Financial Services Ajay Srinivasan said, "In keeping with our vision of being a well-diversified financial services conglomerate that builds leadership through solving customer problems, ABHICL will seek to grow in a competitive market by making a positive impact on individuals and families.

"We are very bullish on this sector and our business model as health is a core necessity for the ambitious India."

ABHICL already has 1,500 network of hospitals and is currently in the process of adding another 200, he said.

The health insurer, which has two group and one retail offering with multiple variations catering to different needs, is also working on a fixed benefit retail product that is expected to be launched before the end of this financial year depending on regulatory approval, Bathwal said.

ABHICL aims to be the most preferred customer partner by 2020 with significant market share, he said.

"We look forward to extending our health insurance solutions to the Indian market and are excited about the growth potential in India," MMI Holdings Group CEO Nicolaas Kruger said.

"We aim to continually work together with ABHICL, to better understand customer needs and enhance our product offerings in line with what they need the most at any given point of time in their life," he added.