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Atul Sahai has been appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the country’s largest general insurance company New India Assurance. The post had been lying vacant since July 2018 after former chairman and managing director G Srinivasan retired.
The appointments committee of the cabinet today announced that Sahai who is the General Manager at Oriental Insurance will be appointed for a period of five years. Sahai's name was recommended by the department of financial services after interviews were held for the position almost three months back.
New India Assurance is among the two state-owned general insurance companies that are listed on the stock exchanges.
All the public sector appointments have to be cleared by the appointments committee of the Cabinet that is headed by the prime minister.
The first task in hand for the new CMD is to reduce the underwriting losses of the company. The general insurer had posted a 56 percent year-on-year (YoY) drop in its September quarter net profit at Rs 328.64 crore as the underwriting losses doubled.
New India’s underwriting losses stood at Rs 1,228.66 crore for Q2FY19 compared to Rs 626.94 crore in the year-ago period. The company is a large player in Kerala that was hit by heavy rainfall and floods in July and August leading to loss of lives and property.
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