IDBI Fortis Life Ins to break even in 6-7 yrs

MUMBAI, May 21 (Reuters) - IDBI Fortis Life Insurance Co Ltd plans to break even in 6-7 years after it launched its operations about 2 months ago, a top official said on Wednesday.

It plans to bank on the branch network of its two Indian founders for the purpose in addition to the conventional agency force, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, G.V. Nageswara Rao told reporters.

The two Indian founders, IDBI Ltd (IDBI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) and Federal Bank (FED.BO: Quote, Profile, Research), have a combined branch network of around 1,000 branches and a customer base of 10 million which the company plans to cash in on, he said.

IDBI Fortis, started with an initial capital base of 2 billion rupees, is a joint venture between state-run IDBI Ltd, Belgian-Dutch financial services group Fortis (FOR.BR: Quote, Profile, Research) and Indian private sector lender Federal Bank.

The company has a current customer base of 7,000 and collected 200 million rupees as first premium. It has opened 30 branches across India and plans to scale it up to 100 by the end of March, he said.

(Reporting by Kaustav Roy; Editing by Ramya Venugopal)