Insurance claims and benefits paid went up 1.8 percent to 1.1 billion rupees while income from investments rose 14.3 percent to 383 million rupees during the period, provisional results filed with the stock exchange showed.

Managing Director of Janashakthi Insurance Prakash Schaffter said that the general insurance business grew five percent to reach just over two billion rupees while life insurance business increased by five percent to reach 702 million rupees.

"The relatively low growth was mainly due to the prevailing economic conditions, which is now expected to improve considerably," he said.

Schaffter said the firm managed to record "impressive" results at the half-year mainly through the management of operating expenditure, which enabled a saving of three percent over the year before.

Also, "prudent" underwriting practices resulted in net claims and benefits paid also being lower than that of the previous year by two percent.

"Claims have fallen, whilst our revenues and other incomes have gone up considerable in the first half," a senior executive at Janashakthi Insurance finance department said.

"This might be a temporary gain as the claims ratio can pick up in the ongoing quarter."

The group's investments, a mix of government securities, property and policy loans, were up 12.6 percent to 6.82 billion rupees, while cash reserves were up almost 157 percent to 584.2 million rupees, its accounts showed.

Janashakthi said 40 percent of its investments were in government securities. The company said it had liquidated part of its policy loans to boost liquidity.

Janashakthi Insurance paid out 1.14 billion rupees in claims to customers during the first half of 2009.

Investment and other income rose 11 percent to 499 million rupees in the first half of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008.

Schaffter said Janashakthi Insurance has the highest stated capital among listed insurance companies, amounting to over 1.49 billion rupees, which is over 7.5 times the statutory requirement.

"The company is also backed by a rapidly accumulated asset base of over 10 billion rupees, 3.4 billion in government securities," he said.

Provisions made for general insurance business were down 9.7 percent to 2.89 billion rupees, while life insurance provisions were up 11.9 to 3.27 billion rupees.

The group's other liabilities were up 13 percent to 1.29 billion rupees, while interest bearing liabilities were up almost 75 percent to 471.3 million rupees.