Ergo in talks with L&T for insurance biz

Ergo, the German insurance is looking forward to enter India, which is making a sharp growth in insurance business. The company has had talks with L&T Finance for a 26:74 joint venture in life insurance. Ergo, is also in talks with some other companies in India to have a separate alliance for general insurance.

Discussions with L&T met up with Ergo to discuss their interests about venturing into the insurance circuit. Moving into the life and non life insurance sectors with the same partner provides a good option for their progress. It is definitely more beneficial to venture with two separate partners, again according to the respective value proposition of the individual partners,” said an Ergo spokesperson.

Industrial news holders, Ergo is also holding talks with Indiabulls for its life insurance business. Ergo is negotiating with financial services major HDFC for its general insurance foray.

A number of business groups like the Hindujas are gearing up to venture into insurance through joint ventures with foreign insurers. Hindujas was earlier said to be in talks with a European insurer for its planned life insurance foray. A leading European insurer Ergo has a premium income of almost $22 billion and is No. 2 in the German primary insurance market, with $133 billion investments. The group, which operates in 24 countries outside Germany, has 28,310 employees.

China is the another market, which foremost on the company’s priority list. Ergo plans to have a prominent presence in both India and China by establishing new corporations and expects high returns in the property, casualty and life business segments.

Following the 110% growth in the life insurance business in India in 2006-07, there has been a rise in interest in the Indian market. Similar growth rates have been witnessed by the general insurance segment, forcing International insurers to look at launching operations in India.