Premiums Rise 14% for India's Oriental Insurance

Positive business performances from representative offices pushed up premiums for India's government-owned Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd. [86044] by 14.02% to 19.57 billion rupees (US$408 million) as of August 2009. Premiums totaled 17.16 billion rupees in the sameperiod last year.

The insurer said that during the period, 22 of its representative offices posted good growth as against six in the previous year, indicating "good performance" by the company.

Incorporated in 1947, Oriental Insurance was a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Oriental Government Security Life Assurance Company and was formed to operate general insurance business. It was also a subsidiary of Life Insurance Corporation of India from 1956 to 1973 until the general insurance business was nationalized in the country.

In 2003, all shares of the insurer held by the General Insurance Corporation of India were transferred to the central government.

The insurer has participated in special covers for large projects, such as power plants, petrochemical, steel and chemical plants. It has also developed different types of insurance covers for both the urban and rural populations of India.

Headquartered in New Delhi, Oriental Insurance has 23 regional offices and around 900 operating offices in various cities across India. The company also has overseas operations in Nepal, Kuwait and Dubai.