New Delhi: Leading private non-life insurer, Bharti AXA General Insurance, has recorded a net profit of Rs 95 crore in the first half of the financial year 2020-21, as against a loss of Rs 90 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.

Even in the Covid crisis and the subsequent challenging times, the company managed to improve its productivity in most business lines and channels and achieve high double-digit growth in the health and personal accident segment, commercial lines, and crop insurance in the first half of this fiscal.

It reported a gross written premium of Rs 1,574 crore in the first half of the current financial year, as against Rs 1,586 crore in the corresponding period of the last fiscal. The moderate drop in the premium income was owing to the impact of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, which resulted in flat growth in line with the non-life insurance industry, the company said in a statement on Monday. The health and personal accident segment saw a significant 47 per cent growth at Rs 226 crore in the first half of the current financial year, as compared to Rs 153 crore in the same period of 2019-20.

"The expected outcome of the Covid-19 crisis is the behavioural change of people towards health insurance, as they realised the benefits of adequate protection and health coverage. This helped us serve the customers with our comprehensive health insurance plans and boost this segment," Srinivasan said.

The company recorded a strong double-digit growth in both commercial lines and crop insurance segments. While the company continued focusing on large corporates, it further strengthened its commitment towards SME and MSME segments which helped post 28 per cent growth at Rs 299 crore in the commercial lines segment during the April-September period of this fiscal, as against Rs 234 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.

Crop insurance yielded 18 per cent growth to Rs 551 crore in the first half of 2020-21 from Rs 467 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal.

Motor and travel insurance segments were more impacted due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Motor insurance de-grew by 26 per cent to Rs 495 crore in the first six months of this fiscal from Rs 669 crore during the same period a year ago. "There has been an evident dip in vehicle insurance mainly because of the drop in sales of new vehicles during this period. The automobile sales performance due to the ongoing pandemic directly affected the prospects of motor insurance," Srinivasan said.

The combined ratio, a measure of profitability that takes into account claims and expenses as a proportion of premiums, stood at 111.5 per cent during the April-September 2020-21 against 122.1 per cent in the corresponding period of 2019-20. (IANS)