Swiss Re said it’s looking for a local partner in India to enter the country’s life and health insurance market.
“We see a very good potential of the evolution of the life and health market in India and we would make an exception to our model of purely being a reinsurer to enter indirectly through a minority joint venture,” Michel Lies, member of Swiss Re’s group executive committee for client markets, said in an interview in New Delhi today.
Property and casualty reinsurance in emerging markets offer the most growth potential for the company, as Asian governments spend more on infrastructure projects that require coverage, according Swiss Re. Growth from the U.S. and other developed countries is expected to be little changed or slow.
The Zurich-based company will be a minority partner in the local joint venture, Lies said. Swiss Re is also in talks with the Indian government to provide insurance coverage for natural disasters, said Reto Schnarwiler, a director.
China, Brazil and Mexico made up about 5 percent of Swiss Re’s total of 29.7 billion Swiss francs ($30.5 billion) of gross written premiums in 2009. The company doesn’t break down the premium income for other emerging markets.
Swiss Re said in June it expects annual growth in the property and casualty reinsurance market to be 6.5 percent over the next decade, while the life and health market will grow at 3.7 percent a year.
Swiss Re is bidding to regain its credit rating that Standard & Poor’s cut in February 2009 after record losses forced the company to turn to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Source : Bloomberg
