Ageas Federal Life aims to triple its biz over next 3 years: CEO Jude Gomes

Ageas was the first foreign insurer to raise its stake in an Indian entity to 74 percent after the FDI cap increase. The group has also invested in Royal Sundaram on the non-life side.

Ageas Federal Life Insurance (AFLI) is targeting a spot among India’s top ten life insurers and aims to triple its business over the next three years, its CEO Jude Gomes told Moneycontrol.

Gomes said, the company, which became a 70:30 JV between Ageas and Federal Bank in March 2025, is also evaluating inorganic growth opportunities and is preparing to leverage expected regulatory changes, including composite licensing, to widen its product and distribution footprint.

Gomes said India remains a core growth market for the Brussels-headquartered Ageas Group, which operates across 13 markets including nine in Asia and four in Europe. Currently, about 40-45 percent of the group’s revenue comes from Asia, a share that is expected to rise as the Indian business scales.

“Asia is the growth story, and the aim is to make India as relevant as the group’s other major markets. In China, we are number four. In India, we are still around number 14 or 15. The first goal is to break into the top 10 and become a formidable player,” he said.

Ageas was the first foreign insurer to raise its stake in an Indian entity to 74 percent after the FDI cap increase. The group has also invested in Royal Sundaram on the non-life side.

Ageas Federal Life Insurance was originally established in 2007 as a three-way joint venture between Ageas (then Fortis Insurance), IDBI Bank and Federal Bank. Over time, the shareholding evolved significantly. In 2020 and 2022, Ageas acquired IDBI Bank’s entire stake in two tranches, becoming the majority shareholder with 74 percent, while Federal Bank held the remaining 26 percent. The JV was reconstituted again in 2025, when Federal Bank purchased an additional 4 percent stake from Ageas, creating the current 70:30 structure.

Given the company’s strong partnership with Federal Bank, bancassurance continues to dominate its distribution mix, accounting for roughly 75 percent of total business, the CEO said.

The agency channel contributes 7 percent, and the DST (Direct Sales Team) about 12 percent. The company plans to gradually increase the agency’s contribution to 25–30 percent in the upcoming fiscal year, in line with private-sector peers.

AFLI will also double its branch footprint over the next two years, focusing primarily on Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets, where insurance penetration remains low, the CEO said.

According to Gomes, the company has felt a sharper margin impact from the GST change because of its smaller scale compared to the top-tier insurers. Gomes said the first-year financial impact is around Rs 30-40 crore, translating to less than 0.3 percent of its total premium income of Rs 3,000 crore.

Like most private insurers, AFLI has started renegotiating terms with distributors to partially offset the burden.

“The focus is to ensure customers get the full benefit. But yes, the ITC structure puts pressure on margins, especially for smaller players like us,” he said.

While ULIPs continue to dominate sales amid strong equity markets, and have become even more attractive versus mutual funds post-GST, AFLI plans to maintain a balanced mix.

The company recently launched a new term (pure protection) product, and Gomes expects a gradual move toward non-par guarantees and protection products, especially as distribution channels are reoriented to push risk products.

He added that the early surge is visible mainly among “more financially evolved customers” buying online through aggregators, but broader adoption will take time.

Looking ahead to 2026, Gomes expects the new IRDAI chairman Ajay Seth to advance several key regulatory priorities.

These include revisiting Section 80C limits to enhance affordability for customers, providing clearer guidelines on open architecture in bancassurance, and creating more supportive frameworks that improve reinsurance access, especially for smaller insurers.

He also anticipates more structured, geography- or segment-based distribution norms aimed at improving channel efficiency.

While India has experienced a rapid sequence of regulatory changes compared with more mature markets, Gomes noted that the regulator has remained accessible and consistently focused on strengthening policyholder protection.

On listing, Gomes said, AFLI has no immediate plans.

“We need to build scale and return to a strong market position, we aim to reach the ninth or tenth rank in the next few years. Listing will happen only once we become a formidable player,” he said.