Asian Alliance will celebrate its first year anniversary on December 01 2000.

Of course there are always teething problems, but the company has managed to secure a comfortable market position within a year - quite an achievement if I may say so, in a very competitive industry that already has several well established players' said Derek Shepherd CEO Asian Alliance Insurance

Asian Alliance Insurance began its operation with a staff of 20 in December 1999. One year later its staff has grown to over 75 in order to handle the increased flow of business. The company attributed this remarkable growth to a host of reasons and in particular to the tremendous effort put in by the dynamic sales forces that work hand in hand with the broker community.

"The company was looking for the correct niche, Shepherd said. "We had already identified a niche in the Broker Market.

Headed by a team of professionals who also have decades of experience in the industry, the company has adopted a unique and non traditional approach to insurance by cultivating "one to one" relationships in order to recommend the best solutions to their prospective customers and intermediaries.

Asian Alliance Insurance intends keeping their staff strength to a minimum in order to promote personalised service. "We want our customers to know our staff by name in order to cut through the red tape and get their job done fast" Mr. Shepherd further went on to say that their staff would be trained to deliver a personalised service to clients. "When we first started even our Chairman would go out on client visits - and he still does. It has worked well for the company and the product, and is firmly part of the company culture".

With Asia Capital Ltd., Richard Pieris & Co. Ltd., Sampath Bank Ltd. & CIC as its major shareholders, Asian Alliance Insurance has a financial strength of Rs. 200 million in paid up capital. The initial public offering which opened on the 22nd of September went on to a successful start when 50% of the issues were subscribed on its opening day. The company offered Rs. 20 million shares of Rs. 10 each to the public.

Moreover, the company has also formed a strategic alliance with Sampath Bank, to provide greater financial benefits to the bank’s customers. The first phase was seen few months ago when Asian Alliance Insurance inaugurated a Bank Insurance Center at the Sampath Bank Nawam Mawatha Branch. This center will work closely with the bank and provide products and services to the bank’s clientele. This will benefit the bank’s clientele, as it will bring about a "One Stop Shop" concept in respect of providing a full range of financial services.

Asian Alliance’s main focus so far has been on general insurance, although the company has been offering group policies since getting its life insurance license. " We were more interested in offering corporate group term life policies for companies than individual policies to begin with." A spokesman for the company said. However the company is now looking at traditional insurance products to be made available to clients through many non-traditional channels as the potential for individual tailor made life insurance is prevalent. The launch of ADVANTAGE Investment Policy on the 23 November is seen as the first step in capitalizing on this aspect.

Headed by S A H Mohideen, General Manager, who has valuable experience in the field of life insurance/ Asian Alliance is in the process of finalizing several innovative life insurance packages. Backed by one of the largest re-insures in the world it is hoped that very soon these products will be introduced to the market.