GIC Re may have to pay Rs 100 cr for IOC's Jaipur fire claims
Mumbai, Nov. 22 GIC Re, the designated national reinsurer, has taken a hit
of Rs 100 crore on account of the recent fire at the Indian Oil Corporation
depot in Jaipur.The IOC depot installation was insured for around Rs 230
crore by a consortium of insurers led by ICICI Lombard General
Insurance.IFFCO Tokio General Insurance, Oriental Insurance and National
Insurance Company were the other insurers.
"Of the Rs 230 crore, GIC Re has reinsured around 30 per cent of the cover.
We will have to pay around Rs 69 crore as claims," said Mr Yogesh Lohiya,
Chairman and Managing Director, GIC Re.
Besides the main cover, IOC had also taken a statutory public liability
cover for Rs 50 crore and additional third-party liability cover for Rs 100
crore. "We have reinsured around 20-25 per cent of both the statutory public
liability cover and the additional third-party liability cover," he added.He
was speaking on the sidelines of an insurance summit organized by the
National Insurance Academy.
Rethink on UK arm
The reinsurer, which was planning to set up a subsidiary in UK, is now
having second thoughts."We are in a double mind. We might set up a
subsidiary or enter into syndication in Lloyd's," said Mr Lohiya.Lloyd's is
a British insurance market where multiple financial backers and underwriters
come together to pool and spread risk.The advantage of entering into
syndication in Lloyd's is that the rating is taken care of, he added.
For GIC Re, around 39 per cent of its total business comes from
international operations. "We plan to increase it to 42 per cent by the end
of this financial year," said Mr Lohiya. The reinsurer, which is also the
administrator of the terror pool, has paid around Rs 167 crore in claims to
Hotel Taj Mahal and Hotel Trident. "The renovation work is still going on.
We expect the total claims from both the hotels to be around Rs 500 crore,"
he said. The terror pool has a corpus of more than Rs 1,300 crore.
THE HINDU BUSINESS LINE newspaper
