National reinsurer General Insurance Corporation of India is set to open a full-fledged office in London by March 2004 even as the world's largest reinsurer, Munich Re, announced its plans to set up full fledged operations in India.

P B Ramanujam, managing director, GIC, told newspersons on the sidelines of a conference in Chennai, that the Indian company feared that it might lose large-value re-insurance business to Munich Re.

"Already we are taking assistance from Munich Re to handle large high-value re-insurance business in India. If they are coming to India directly, this business may go away from us in due of time. Hence it is imperative that we expand to geographies beyond India," Ramanujam said.

At present, GIC earns approximately Rs 850 crore a year from its high-value portfolio re-insurance which roughly translates to about one-fourth of its total income. GIC's income earned from reinsurance will be around Rs 3,500 crore and Rs 500 crore is contributed from its foreign operations.

"KenIndia Assurance a joint venture from between Life India Corporation and GIC is expected to set-up TanzIndia in Tanzania in the next two months. We are looking at opening branches in overseas market such as South East Asia, Middle East and Africa," he added.

GIC has subsidiary offices in Singapore and Kenya and representative offices in London and Russia.