Aim to triple profits to Rs 2,500 crore by FY28: Star Health Insurance MD & CEO: Anand Roy

Chennai-based Star Health and Allied Insurance has a 33% market share in retail health insurance. It has 91% of total health gross written premium (GWP) for retail business, which has grown at a CAGR of 23% over the last 5 years. Anand Roy, its 49-year-old MD and CEO, tells Business Today, about how he plans to triple the insurer’s profits to Rs 2,500 crore by FY28. Edited excerpts:

What is your strategy for tripling profits over the next four years?

At Star Health, we follow a fourpronged “ABCD” growth strategy: A is for agency. Star Health has a vast network of 760,000 agents and intends to take it to 1 million agents in the next three years. Currently contributing 80% of the company’s business, agency sales continue to be a primary focus especially on increasing insurance penetration in non-metro cities and towns.

B is for bancassurance. Partnerships with approximately 70 financial institutions, including major public sector banks, housing finance  companies, NBFCs and fintech partnerships, offer significant opportunity to reach millions of customers to promote health insurance in all segments of the population. We are privileged to have close to over 40,000 branches amongst our partners and this provides significant distribution opportunities.

C is for corporate business. Star Health primarily caters to micro, small and medium enterprises. Our distribution reach allows us to tap into Tier II and Tier III cities, providing insurance solutions tailored to small and medium enterprises in ‘Bharat’.

D is for digital directto-consumer (D2C) business. We are a leader in digital health insurance sales, holding an estimated 50% market share in D2C online insurance. This channel currently contributes 8% of revenues and is showing robust growth. Our home healthcare initiative in 100+ cities has effectively enhanced customer wellbeing.

Significant investment in technology and automation allows us to have the best metrics in terms of low operating costs and high customer experience.