BTTV Exclusive: What's driving growth at Niva Bupa? CFO Vishwanath Mahendra answers
The Niva Bupa CFO said retail is the company's focus area in the past four months. "That's something, we are very comfortable with. That should drive growth," he said.
- Aug 4, 2026,
- Updated Aug 4, 2026 3:29 PM IST
Vishwanath Mahendra, Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Niva Bupa Health Insurance Company Ltd, said the company aims to grow its retail health insurance business 8-10 percentage points faster than the industry while continuing to gain market share. Group health insurance for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is another key area of focus for Niva Bupa, he said.
In an exclusive interview with BTTV, Mahendra said it has been the company's policy to raise premiums by high single digits for all mature products that have been in force for more than two years.
The Niva Bupa CFO said retail is the company's focus area in the past four months. "That's something, we are very comfortable with. That should drive growth," he said.
Niva Bupa offers group health insurance, retail health insurance, and travel insurance plans.
Niva Bupa reported a net profit of Rs 138 crore for the June quarter, up 93 per cent yoY compared with Rs 71.40 crore a year-ago. Revenue for the quarter rose 28.5 per cent YoY to Rs 2,274 crore. Gross written premium rose 32 per cent YoY. Mahendra said if one drill down the GWP, growth in retail segment has been 47 per cent, saying its a key driver for the firm that has really helped in the profitability increase.
"All the metrics whether it is loss ratio, combined ratio and solvency ratio have shown improvement. In fact, if you see our group health that is flat and the reason is because we saw in last few quarters the opportunity in group health to drive good profitable business was not that much and cyclical. So last few quarters rates were soft and in a few quarters, things may turn around," Mahendra told BTTV.
He said the GST tailwind, exemption of GST in case of retail health, has really helped the industry. Mahendra's Niva Bupa made investments in all the distribution channels in the past one year.
"It is a basically a story of operating leverage: higher business growth, loss ratios benign and expenses spread across larger base," he said.
In the case of health segment, the market share has improved to 4-5 per cent to 11 per cent.The increase has been consistently quarter-on-quarter. That is mainly driven by Niva's approach of multi-channel. Mahendra said his company is adding 1,000 headcounts mainly frontline sales officers this year to capitalise on the opportunity.
"If you just see our portfolio in last one quarter the new business more than 90 per centbusiness is coming from Rs 10 lakh and above policies. That is a very healthy trend. The GST exemption has really helped because the premium has gone down by 18 per cent. Now People go for higher sum insured more rich covers and that has been a one driving factor and this is win-win. It is good for the consumer because they get adequacy of cover and it is good for the company," he said.
Vishwanath Mahendra, Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Niva Bupa Health Insurance Company Ltd, said the company aims to grow its retail health insurance business 8-10 percentage points faster than the industry while continuing to gain market share. Group health insurance for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is another key area of focus for Niva Bupa, he said.
In an exclusive interview with BTTV, Mahendra said it has been the company's policy to raise premiums by high single digits for all mature products that have been in force for more than two years.
The Niva Bupa CFO said retail is the company's focus area in the past four months. "That's something, we are very comfortable with. That should drive growth," he said.
Niva Bupa offers group health insurance, retail health insurance, and travel insurance plans.
Niva Bupa reported a net profit of Rs 138 crore for the June quarter, up 93 per cent yoY compared with Rs 71.40 crore a year-ago. Revenue for the quarter rose 28.5 per cent YoY to Rs 2,274 crore. Gross written premium rose 32 per cent YoY. Mahendra said if one drill down the GWP, growth in retail segment has been 47 per cent, saying its a key driver for the firm that has really helped in the profitability increase.
"All the metrics whether it is loss ratio, combined ratio and solvency ratio have shown improvement. In fact, if you see our group health that is flat and the reason is because we saw in last few quarters the opportunity in group health to drive good profitable business was not that much and cyclical. So last few quarters rates were soft and in a few quarters, things may turn around," Mahendra told BTTV.
He said the GST tailwind, exemption of GST in case of retail health, has really helped the industry. Mahendra's Niva Bupa made investments in all the distribution channels in the past one year.
"It is a basically a story of operating leverage: higher business growth, loss ratios benign and expenses spread across larger base," he said.
In the case of health segment, the market share has improved to 4-5 per cent to 11 per cent.The increase has been consistently quarter-on-quarter. That is mainly driven by Niva's approach of multi-channel. Mahendra said his company is adding 1,000 headcounts mainly frontline sales officers this year to capitalise on the opportunity.
"If you just see our portfolio in last one quarter the new business more than 90 per centbusiness is coming from Rs 10 lakh and above policies. That is a very healthy trend. The GST exemption has really helped because the premium has gone down by 18 per cent. Now People go for higher sum insured more rich covers and that has been a one driving factor and this is win-win. It is good for the consumer because they get adequacy of cover and it is good for the company," he said.