Shikha Sharma, CEO at ICICI Prudential told CNBC-TV18 that  ICICI Prudential has been focused over the last seven years in bringing innovative solutions to consumers and making sure that the products and services add value to the customers.

Excerpts from the exclusive interview with Shikha Sharma:

Q: On this occasion, tell us what are your plans for your company and whatever numbers you can share in terms of the pace of growth and when probably you will be in the black?

A: Thanks for choosing me for the award and also congratulations to CNBC-TV18 on its 8^th anniversary. As far as ICICI Prudential is concerned, we have been focused over the last seven years in bringing innovative solutions to consumers and making sure that our products and services add value to the customers. We have seen a 100% compound rate of growth for the last seven years. We believe that there is still a lot of growth in this industry going forwards, benefiting from the general economic growth of the economy and the high savings rate that India is seeing coupled with the entire equity market boom which unit linked insurance plans are offering for consumers to participate in. So our belief is that the industry should continue to grow at anywhere between 30-40% over the next 2-3 years and we would definitely expect to grow ahead of the market.      

Q: I would come to that ULIP part because of the amount of money that you bring into the stock markets but very quickly on the black front, when do you think you’ll will be able to break into the black and would your going public decision be related to that in anyway?

A: It is very difficult to predict exactly where it would turn black because it really depends little bit upon the rate of growth that we see over the next few years but we would expect that to happen some time in the next 2-3 years. As far as going public is concerned- aware investors understand that you create value in the insurance industry by building a long-term contract even though you maybe making a loss.

So that’s really not so much of an issue but the FII restriction of 26% does pose constraint on some of the regulatory limit around. How much domestic promoters need to dilute is something that we are waiting for clarification from IRDA. So no immediate plans for IPO but profit loss are not really big constraints here.      

Q: Coming to that ULIP issue that you raised. How much money annually does ICICI Prudential bring to the stock markets by way of ULIP and what is the industry itself bring in terms of ULIP collections and therefore bolstering stock market?

A: About 60% to 70% of the collections that we would have made this year will go into equity markets. So that could be anything in the range of Rs 4,000 to 5,000 crore which is a fairly significant number in terms of new business plus also in terms of old contracts which states that there will be another couple of Rs 1,000 crore of fresh money that’s going into the stock markets.

The good news is that the money that we bring to the stock markets is through regular long-term investing by consumers, so they are getting to participate in the long-term growth of equity markets in a very structured and systematic way and therefore this money has tended to be stable irrespective of volatility in the markets which we have seen a couple of times in the last two to three years.  

Q: One stumbling block for insurance companies has been that no final decision has been reached on the holding companies structure, is that a constraint to growth and capital? How do you see the whole issue panning out?

A: We as a company have been lucky since our promoters have been willing to bring in the capital required to grow the business and I don’t see that as a constraint for the next couple of years. I do think that given the growth potential of the industry and the capital requirements of the industry, it will benefit to unleash the industry a bit more.

Rationalize the capital requirements, which currently are very high for the life industry and at the same time allow more market participation and FII participation in the investments required to grow the sector. So I am hoping that there will be some resolution around some issues over the next couple of years.

Q: In the meanwhile, there were a bunch of investors who were ready to pick a stake in that company at fairly decent valuations. Are they still ready at those valuations, all that stands?

A: They are very much ready at those valuations. In fact given what's happened to life insurance businesses in Asia since then. The fair value of the business could today be even higher. So I don’t think the valuations are so much of a constraint, it’s a question of when we would be allowed to do something.