Metlife to milk recession, plans massive expansion

INSURING SUCCESS: Metlife team has made a deep study of the market and wants to ride the recession wave as competition runs scared.

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New Delhi: Private insurance major Metlife has announced big plans in India. Metlife plans to hire over 2,000 people and double the number of its branches. The company also plans to increase the number of its financial advisers from 30,000 to 60,000 keeping in lieu with its plans.

Managing Director of Metlife India Insurance, Rajesh Relan justifies the plans as a part of their growth strategy.

"We are going to do more business in next 5 months than we have done in the last 5 years," Relan said.

The company's take is clear that bears must be taken head on and going big on the bust seems the way ahead for Metlife.

The company has launched two new products, which are Met Growth & Met Income Guaranteed, to keep pace with its expansion plans.

Understandably, both the products have an element of guaranteed return on investments.

The company is also hiring aggressively to ensure the success of its existing products as well as new ones in the offing.

"We plan to raise 100 crore through shareholders. We would double the number of offices from 96 to 191, hire 2000 sales managers and increase the number of financial advisers from 30,000 to 60,000," Relan added.

According to IRDA, life insurance industry grossed premium of Rs. 40,000 crore from January to September this year.

Although premiums for the month of August at 3400 crore rupees were much below the 5000 crore rupees average, Metlife claims that it is growing at 118 per cent as against the 60 per cent growth boasts of.

Metlife has said that though the customer base is small, it presents an opportunity for them to revise and hasten their expansion plans to get maximum gains.

It is the downturn in the global economy that they hope to get help from. In recessive times it is relatively cheaper to set-up businesses, costs like lower property rentals and skilled manpower are lower than at other times. This can help fuel their growth said Relan.

Metlife works on the premise that a mere 20 per cent of the insurable population in India is covered by life insurance.

Considering its population base of a billion, even a marginal increase in the insurable population represents a considerable market opportunity.

Apart from that, India has one of the highest personal savings rates in the world.

And as most of the other measures seem insipid for corporates across the board to raise their revenues, being bullish seems the last throw of dice which could trigger a revival.