mumbaichennai sbi general insurance the nonlife insurance subsidiary of state bank of india is in talks to increase the stake held by insurance australia group iag to 49 per cent in our jv agreement there is a clause with our foreign partner iag to allow them to hike their stake to 49 per cent as and when the law permits it when new insurance bill is passed our jv partner will be interested to raise their stake to 49 per cent sbi general insurance managing director and chief executive bhaskar jyoti sarma told pti sbi group chairperson arundhati bhattacharya had recently said the bank was looking for divestment of some stake in sbi general particularly after the insurance ordinance was issued the government in december last year promulgated the ordinance for raising foreign investment cap in the insurance sector to 49 per cent from 26 per cent earlier the ordinance however yet to be cleared by parliament when asked whether they are talking to other partners sarma said he does not see any new global player putting in money into the company i dont think any new player will come into the picture as we are not yet eligible for getting listed the quantum of capital infusion by our foreign partner will depend on the valuation the process for which is expected to start shortly he said meanwhile speaking with reporters in chennai sbi general insurance deputy ceo steve hollow said we have started discussing with sbi but we still need to see the passage of legislation in parliament currently the stake by insurance australia group iag is 26 per cent we are in discussions to increase it to 49 per cent he said the proposal to increase stake comes in the backdrop of capital requirement of the company there will be a substantial capital requirement by next fiscal he said after unveiling the sbi general group health insurance policy here hollow said the company pegs a total premium of rs 1600 crore by march 2015 compared to rs 1200 crore premium registered last year we are looking at a total premium of rs 1600 crore by this financial year our target is grow at 50 per cent in the following fiscal he said asked on the factors that would contribute 50 per cent growth next fiscal hollow said the company plans to increase its agents from the present 6000 to 10000 by next financial year there is lot of potential here in india economy has started improving he said to a query he said the domestic insurance sector was valued at rs 32000 crore growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 20 per cent the company has nearly 70 branches and by march it should be 8590 we want to strengthen both agents and brokers currently there are 300 insurance brokers and the company has tied up with 220 of them we are now focusing on increasing business through the broker channel sarma said on the premium front