Calcutta, March 8: Bajaj Auto and Allianz AG of Germany will infuse about Rs 100 crore into their joint venture, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, by the end of this month. “We need more capital to maintain a comfortable solvency margin to support a business growth of over 300 per cent this year,” said Sam Ghosh, chief executive officer, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance.

“The capital requirement will be at least Rs 100 crore, though we have not yet calculated the exact sum. We’ll soon work it out. Whatever it may be, the investment will be made before the end of this fiscal,” he added.

The Pune-based private life insurer has clocked a premium income of close to Rs 1,700 crore between April 2005 and January 2006 compared with Rs 1,000 crore in 2004-05. In December alone, the company’s premium income jumped 467 per cent on a like-to-like basis to Rs 351 crore.

Encouraged by the spurt in new premium income, Bajaj Allianz is targeting a premium income of Rs 3,500 crore this fiscal. “We are confident to touch the Rs 3,000-crore mark, if not Rs 3,500 crore,” Ghosh said. “Of this, new premiums will contribute Rs 2,500 crore and the rest will be renewal premium income.”

Ghosh is aiming at doubling the premium income to Rs 7,000 crore in 2006-07. “We have a capital base of Rs 368 crore at present and this looks insufficient to support the business growth,” he said.

Bajaj Allianz also plans to increase its branch network to 1,000 from 500 at present. As of now, the company has five branches and 20 satellite offices in Bengal, which it plans to increase to 20 and 40, respectively, next fiscal.

Following the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority’s approval of the micro-insurance business, Bajaj Allianz sees a great potential in it. “We are putting more thrust on rural markets, which contribute 18 per cent to our total business. We are aiming at a 22 per cent contribution from it,” Ghosh said. The insurer also sees big business from pension plans. In his budgetary proposals, finance minister P. Chidambaram has proposed to raise the limit of contribution towards pension plans of life insurance companies to the overall cap of Rs 1 lakh for income tax deduction under section 80C.

“Right now we have one unit-linked pension plan contributing only 4-5 per cent of our total business. Before June, we will launch another pension scheme. Our target is to increase the share of pension plans to 10 per cent of the total business by 2006-07,” Ghosh said.