Fortis and Industrial Development Bank of India announced last week they signed a joint life insurance venture in India. The companies plan to announce a third party to join the venture in the near future.
Fortis CEO Peer van Harten said in a news release that India is a key market for the development of Fortis’ international insurance activities because the sector is mushrooming in the country characterized by high savings and low penetration rates.
“This will also give us the opportunity to profit from expected high growth in life insurance and possibly other related products and services such as Non-Life, Pensions and Asset Management,” he said. “We look forward to our partnership with IDBI, a dynamic bank in India having built a strong network of corporate relationships, retail branches, ATMs and direct sales teams, as was being close to Fortis in terms of corporate culture.”
Shri V.P. Shetty, chairman and managing director of IDBI, said, “IDBI has decided to make a foray into Life Insurance business to complement the range of financial products and services being offered to its clientele in consonance with its vision statement to be a financial conglomerate. Fortis, one of the largest player in the insurance market in Europe and also having successful JVs in different Asian countries, has been chosen as a partner after a careful process of due diligence.”