Chola MS Launches Click Easy Overseas Travel Insurance

Introduces Leisure, Business and Student Travel Insurance Plans

Chennai, July 16, 2010 Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company Ltd. (Chola MS), a joint venture of the Murugappa Group and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group, Japan, today announced the launch of CLICK EASY Travel Insurance at their website www.cholainsurance.com. Customers can now do simple, transparent and paperless transactions to purchase Leisure, Business and Student Travel Insurance policies online. The company aims to sell 10% of its total travel insurance policies online for the year 2010-11.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. S.S. Gopalarathnam, Managing Director, Chola MS said, “Click Easy Travel Insurance finds its opportunity gap on 2 trends. Firstly, the outbound traffic from the country is growing at 20% and will reach around 13 million (2010-11) passengers travelling abroad for tourism, business & studies. Secondly, more and more ticketing is happening online. IATA is working towards selling all its tickets online globally by 2011. Click Easy Travel Insurance offers a simple and cost-effective way of buying travel insurance by the click.”

It is an interactive portal where the customer can complete the transaction in a few minutes by choosing the covers required and the countries he is visiting and completing the payment through a credit / debit card. These policies are designed to cover health-related emergencies and travel-related inconveniences that one may encounter during overseas travel. It offers complete door-to-door coverage, from the time the passenger leaves home for the overseas trip till the return from the trip.

The Leisure travel plan is offered in variants with the medical benefit ranging from $50,000 to $250,000. The policy is available for a wide age group, from infants (3 months) right up to 65 years without medical checkup and covers most emergencies one is likely to face while traveling abroad.

Cost of medical & dental treatment, daily hospitalization benefit, loss or delay of checked in baggage , loss of passport, emergency cash assistance, trip cancellation, trip delay, and personal accident are some of the covers available. This also covers adventure sports on payment of a nominal additional premium.

The Student Travel Insurance plan offers standard coverage in line with the requirements of foreign universities. Cost of medical expenses, dental treatment, personal accident, compassionate visit, loss of checked baggage, passport, study interruption are some of the key covers available.

Chola MS will soon extend its online presence to the other products like Health, Home and Personal Accident.

About Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company Ltd

Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company (Chola MS) is a joint venture between the USD 3.03 billion Murugappa Group & Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group Japan. Murugappa Group is a pioneer and market leader in various fields and has strong presence in fertilizers, Sugar, Abrasives, Cycles and Consumer finance. Mitsui Sumitomo is the second largest insurance Group of Japan with a net written premium of US$ 12.39 Billion in General Insurance. Chola MS is headquartered in Chennai and has 111 offices spread across India. Chola MS offers a wide range of products that include Accident, Engineering, Health, Liability, Marine, Motor, Property, Travel & Rural Insurance for individuals as well as corporate customers.

About the Murugappa Group

Founded in 1900, the Rs. 13617 Crores (USD 3.03 billion) Murugappa Group is one of India's leading business conglomerates. The Group has 29 companies under its umbrella, of which seven are listed and actively traded in NSE & BSE. Headquartered in Chennai, the major companies of the Group include Carborundum Universal, Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company Limited, Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company Ltd, Coromandel International Ltd, Coromandel Engineering Company Ltd, EID Parry (India) Ltd, Parry Agro Industries Ltd, Tube Investments of India Ltd and Wendt (India) Ltd.

Market leaders in served segments including Abrasives, Auto Components, Cycles, Sugar, Farm Inputs, Fertilizers, Plantations, Construction, Bio-products and Nutraceuticals, the Group has forged strong joint venture alliances with leading international companies like Mitsui Sumitomo, Foskor, Cargill and Groupe Chimique Tunisien. The Group has a wide geographical presence panning 13 states in India and 5 continents.

Renowned brands like BSA, Hercules, Ballmaster, Ajax, Parry’s, Gromor and Paramfos are from the Murugappa stable.

The organization fosters an environment of professionalism and has a workforce of over 32,000 employees.

About Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company (MSI)

Mitsui Sumitomo is the second largest Insurance Group in Japan, with a Net Written Premium (NWP) of 12.39 billion USD in 2008. The Company has 729 sales bases, 257 claims handling offices and about 59000 agents throughout Japan. MS also offers its services globally with 63 sales bases in 38 countries and regions overseas. Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. Ltd. was awarded the “General Insurance Company of the Year” Award in 2005 at the 9th Asia Insurance Industry Award ceremony held in Singapore. This has been awarded to MSI for being the most active non-life insurance company and for reaching the top of the foreign non-life insurers in the region.

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