Mumbai, May 23: From hawking various products across segments, Pantaloon Retail India Ltd is moving to the life insurance business.

The retail arm of the Fortune Group today signed an agreement with Italy-based Assicurazioni Generali to offer life and non-life insurance policies in India.

The venture, Future Generali, marks Pantaloon’s foray into the insurance business and Europe’s third largest insurance group’s entry into the Indian market.

The Future Group will hold a 74 per cent stake in Future Generali through Pantaloon Retail and Generali will have a 26 per cent share.

It will have an initial corpus of Rs 200 crore and operate in the market through two separate companies in the life and non-life segments.

The Future Group, formerly known as the Pantaloon group, headed by Kishore Biyani, includes Future Capital that is involved in asset management, Future Property, Future Logistics, Future Media and Future Brands.

For the first time in the country a retailer is tying up with an insurance firm. The plan is to leverage Pantaloon’s significant retail distribution network.

As part of its plans to expand the portfolio of retail products, the group has tied-up with Generali for its foray into the insurance business. The proposed joint venture would distribute insurance products utilising the vast distribution network of the company along with other conventional formats of insurance distribution presently prevalent in the country, the company informed stock exchanges.

Pantaloon, through its multiple retail formats, has over 3,25,000 sq metres of retail space spread over 100 stores. The plan is to increase this to 1 million sq metre by 2008.

Biyani, who signed the agreement with Generali CEO Sergio Balbinot, said, “Emerging countries house 86 per cent of the world’s population, produce 23 per cent of its wealth, but generate just 12.3 per cent of life and 10.4 per cent of non non-life premiums of the global insurance industry. In the emerging economies, major growth perspectives are certainly offered by China and India.”

Presently, 14 life and 13 non-life insurance providers operate in India.

From 2000, the market has recorded an overall annual growth rate of over 16 per cent in the life segment and 10 per cent in non-life. The insurance market is expected to post an annual growth rate of 15-20 per cent over the next 15 years.