ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has become the first private insurance company to cross Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) sum assured over a premium income of Rs 680 crore (Rs 6.80 billion) within three years of operations and plans to hike its capital further to expand the business.

"The achievement of Rs 10,000 crore sum assured came in less than three years since the inception of the company, and marked a growth of over 138 per cent since August 2002," Shikha Sharma, managing director and CEO, ICICI Prudential, said in Kolkata on Wednesday.

Without disclosing the amount of fresh infusion, she said, "Our equity base currently stands at Rs 525 crore (Rs 5.25 billion), and promoters ICICI Bank and Prudential Plc holding 74 per cent and 26 per cent stake, respectively would bring in fresh capital during the current fiscal."

The company also announced the launch of two new products - SecurePlus and CashPlus - which promised to offer greater flexibility, transparency and more features in addition to savings and protection elements.

The company grew by 132 per cent during the first quarter of 2003-04 and sold 51,000 policies with new business premium income of Rs 70 crore (Rs 700 million), which was 27 per cent of the total premium income of the entire previous fiscal.

The average premium was Rs 16,000 and average sum assured of Rs 250,000 during the quarter which showed a growth of 23 per cent.

The country's leading private insurance company issued nearly 400,000 policies with a sum assured in excess of Rs 9,700 crore (Rs 97 billion) and total premium income of over Rs 640 crore (Rs 6.40 billion) upto March 2003.