HYDERABAD: The Shriram Group may become the first Indian company to kick off life insurance business on its own, without waiting for a foreign partner, by July next year.

The company has started looking at the insurance business as it has been doing well in distributing life insurance products of AMP Sanmar and other products belonging to non-life companies.

"We have decided to launch our life insurance business by July next year. We are currently negotiating with a couple of foreign partners but are confident of doing it on our own even if talks fail," R Thyagarajan, chairman, Shriram group, said here today.

"We have done very well in distributing insurance products so far. To a large extent, we have leveraged the Shriram Chits network to achieve our results.

We are sure to replicate the same when it comes to distribution of our own insurance products, hence we are confident of breaking even in just about 3 years against the industry norm of 6-8 years," he said.

“Though foreign capital is generally preferred for insurance, which is a capital intensive business, it would be wrong to presume that Indian companies cannot introduce innovative products on their own," Mr Thyagarajan said.

The company plans to invest Rs 100 crore to start with. "Plans are also on to invest an equal amount for foraying into non-life insurance at a later date," he said. The company is planning to rope in banks and financial institutions as its partners in insurance business.

The Shriram group is mainly into financial services and has investments in areas such as IT, property development and pharma.