CHENNAI - After operating without an overseas partner all these years, Anil Ambani group’s Reliance Life Insurance is now looking out for an international strategic partner to hold up to 20 percent stake, apart from planning an initial public offer.

“We have started the process of identifying the strategic investor,” said Sam Ghosh, chief executive of Reliance Capital. “The process will take around four months time,” Ghosh told IANS in an interview.

“A strategic investor will enable us to discover the right price for our share as we are planning a public issue. From business point of view we do not need an overseas partner. But an overseas life insurer will be a better for our business,” he said.

Reliance Life is a subsidiary of Reliance Capital.

The stake offered to a strategic investor depends on the government allowing Reliance Life to go public. The life insurer plans to divest up to 20 percent stake, of which 10 percent will be to the investor before going public.

In case Reliance Life is unable to get a clearance for its initial public offering from the government, then it will consider offering the entire 20 percent stake to the overseas partner, Ghosh explained.

Reliance Life, he said, will need Rs.400 crore ($80 million) as additional capital this year and half of that next year to meet the solvency norms. “There won’t be any expense over-run for the company from next year onward. We will break even next fiscal.”

Queried about the cap on charges stipulated by the insurance regulator and the impact on business plans, Ghosh said: “Our insurance products are priced properly and profitably to meet the expenses. As such we are not affected by the cap on charges.”

Targeting premia of Rs.20,000 crore ($4 billion) in new policies and renewals, Reliance Life also plans to expand its branch network to 1,600 over the next two years from 1,250 branches at present.

For the current year, Reliance Life is confident of earning a total premium of Rs.9,000 crore, with new and renewals contributing equally. “Our plan is to grow our new business annually by 25 percent. Renewal premium will fetch the balance.”

According to him, the company is targeting asset under management of Rs.15,000 crore ($1.5 billion) by the end of this year, Rs.40,000 crore ($8 billion) by 2013 from the current levels of Rs.10,000 crore ($2 billion).

“By 2013 we will be one of top life insurers in terms of AUM,” he said, adding the focus on the popular unit linked insurance policy (ULIP) will also come down from the current 93 percent to 80 percent, with the balance accounted for by traditional policies.

“Health will be around 4 percent.”

(V. Jagannathan can be reached at v.jagannathan@ians.in and biz@ians.in)