LIC (International), a subsidiary of LIC of India, has collected BD6.92 million ($18.4 million) in new business premiums during the first half of the financial year.

It launched a new product, Gold Plus, on May 22 and it has received a good response from the market and collected BD1.01 million from this product alone to date.

"Of late, many countries have started keeping gold as a reserve instead of currency," said chief executive officer and managing director R Thamodharan.

"Thus gold has been having a bullish period for the last couple of months and market analysts expect the price of gold to go up," he added.

The net asset value of the Gold Plus plan units, as of August 18, was $10.4106.

This product has already given handsome returns in its three-month period to investors. It is the most appropriate time to invest in this product, the company said.

The total revenue of the company, as at end of the first half of the year, was BD25.52 million.

"The company has targeted BD23 million in the current year as new business premiums which it is confident to achieve," added general manager L K Shamsunder.

The company has declared bonus ranging from $29 to $31 per $1,000 sum assured for endowment policies.

This is the ninth year in succession in which the bonus rates have been increased, the company said. – TradeArabia News Service