Bullish mkt gives a fillip to Ulip products

With stock market bouncing back in the country, the life insurnace policy holders are now more keen to buy equity-linked Ulip products.

For the private sector life insurer, ICICI (ICICIBANK.NS : 848.55 +3.9) Prudential, investors are opting more for the equity-linked ULIP products than the debt-linked ones. This shift in buying behaviour has been observed by the insurer during past few months.

Talking to FE Puneet Nanda, executive vice-president, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, said, "As on May-end, the ratio between equity and debt linked Ulip products was 60:40 as against 50:50 in March-end."

The assets under management of the company was at Rs 42,000 crore as on May-end when compared to Rs 32,000 crore as on March-end. As of now 80-90% of the total policies as sold by the company comprise Ulip products.

Nanda clarified that his company is not looking at initial public offering (IPO) at this point of time as the company is having sufficient capital as of now.

Nanda further said that health insurance, which comprises 20% in terms of number of total policies sold by his company, is going to be a big focus area for it.

"Though we are one of the few players to manage pension fund under recently rolled out New Pension Scheme, I don't see any competition between the products of life insurnace and pension company ''said Nanda. Nearly 50% of ICICI Pru's business comes from pension products.