Mahindra enters life insurance with Manulife, targets rural India

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M) today outlined its strategic move into the life insurance business through a partnership with Manulife, focusing on becoming the "#1 life insurer for rural and semi-urban India." This expansion aims to leverage M&M’s strong brand trust, existing customer base in Tier 2/3 cities, and extensive distribution network, including over 1,345 pan-India Mahindra Finance branches covering approximately 500,000 villages and 8,000 towns. The collaboration with Manulife, a leading Canadian life insurer and asset manager, is expected to provide strong underwriting, product capability, and reinsurance expertise.

M&M anticipates investing approximately INR 250 crore per year for the first five years, totaling around INR 3,600 crore over 10 years. This investment is projected to lead to a valuation of INR 18,000 – INR 30,000 crore in 10 years, which would be accretive to Mahindra Finance’s return on assets. The initiative is positioned as a compelling opportunity to create meaningful value, addressing India's high protection gap, particularly in rural areas where only 2% of life insurance branches exist despite comprising 65% of the population.

The new life insurance venture will enhance M&M's financial services footprint, complementing its existing operations in lending, asset management, and insurance broking. The strategy emphasizes a protection focus, digitization in sales and servicing, and a premier agency network, with a goal to serve urban customers through leadership in protection solutions.