News: Generali signs JV with India's Pantaloon Retail

(RTR 23/05/2006) Milan - Italian insurer Generali has agreed to set up an insurance joint venture with India's Pantaloon Retail to be called Future Generali, with a starting capital of 2 billion Indian rupees ($43.88 million).

Generali will own 26 percent of the joint venture, its first enterprise in the Indian market, and Pantaloon Retail will own 74 percent, the insurer said in a statement on Tuesday.

"India is a very young country with 60 percent of the population below 30 years of age. These are the new insurance buyers of India tomorrow who spend a significant time at modern retail outlets (stores and malls)," Kishore Biyani, Chief Executive of the Future Group that owns Pantaloon, said in the statement.

The joint venture will offer life and non-life insurance.

The companies expect India's insurance sector to grow 15-20 percent per year over the next 15 years, due to the country's high savings ratio and deregulation of the market.

Premium income in 2005 totalled the equivalent of 17.5 billion euros ($22.38 billion) in India, with the life insurance segment making up two-thirds of that, they said.

At 1249 GMT shares in Generali were up 1.26 percent at 27.33 euros.