Major insurance group AXA Indonesia eyes a bigger market share in the country, buoyed by its recent partnership with pharmaceutical firm Sanofi Group.

AXA chief marketing officer Emmanuel Wehry said the company was upbeat about business prospects this year, citing the country'€™s economic potentials.

'€œWe are very optimistic about the Indonesian market because as the economy grows, people will want more things, including life protection and wealth protection. So the opportunity for us is there, more than ever,'€ he said on Tuesday.

As a group, AXA now sought to increase its share of the market, which stood at about 11 percent last year, Wehry added.

The group currently has several life insurance business arms, namely AXA Financial Indonesia overseeing agency distribution channels; AXA Life Indonesia overseeing telemarketing operations; AXA Mandiri Financial Services, which is a joint venture with state lender Bank Mandiri in the bancassurance business; and Asuransi AXA Indonesia, which operates as a general insurance business.

Alongside the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, the AXA Group lists Indonesia as a high-growth market in the Southeast Asia region for life and savings.

The AXA Group hopes to see its group segment, also referred to as its corporate segment, play a larger role.

Part of this year'€™s growth is expected to come from the partnership with Sanofi.

The two groups '€” whose global headquarters are both located in Paris '€” signed a deal on Tuesday that would enable AXA customers to receive typhoid and influenza vaccinations following the renewal of their policies.

Asuransi AXA Indonesia president director Paul-Henri Rastoul said that from a purely business perspective, the partnership would provide the firm with a major point of differentiation from competitors.

'€œToday we are the only insurer to provide this type of prevention to clients, both corporate and individual. We started at the end of last year and clients have responded positively,'€ Rastoul said on the sidelines of the signing ceremony.

AXA has set a target of around 100,000 corporate clients and 20,000 individual policy holders during the initial phase of the deal.

Meanwhile, the government'€™s national health insurance (JKN) program is expected to contribute to AXA'€™s growth this year as well.

As companies are required to enroll their employees in the program, AXA predicts that overall awareness regarding insurance will increase, according to Wehry.

'€œPeople are talking more and more about health and they want both: They want the [JKN] and they also want the corporate solutions as additional protections,'€ he said, claiming that the firm had not recorded a decline in the number of its corporate clients since the JKN program was put in place.

AXA currently provides financial reports through each of its business arms, but none have yet published audited results for 2014.

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