PRESS RELEASE

20 November 2006

Birla Sun Life Insurance announces Kapil Dev as its brand ambassador

Birla Sun Life Insurance (BSLI), one of the leading private life insurers in India today announced the inimitable achiever, cricketer Kapil Dev as their corporate brand ambassador. The cricketing supremo will be endorsing BSLI in all its marketing initiatives.

Birla Sun Life Insurance is a value-driven brand which has a national brand recall of 70 per cent. The objective of appointing a brand ambassador is to grow its brand recall as it goes national in its distribution reach and fuel business growth.

As a brand ambassador, Kapil Dev will play a key role in the brand and product marketing and promotional activities. BSLI has always used an integrated marketing approach, which will be strengthened further.

Commenting on the association with Kapil Dev, Mr. S. K. Mitra, Director, Financial Services, Aditya Birla Group and currently incharge of BSLI expressed, "The Birla Sun Life Insurance business distribution network is national in nature covering more than 1000 points across the country .We have made our entry in several tier I and tier II towns. It is therefore very important for the brand to connect at the grassroot level and create trust. We believe that our association with Kapil Dev as our brand ambassador will help us create this connect in a shorter period of time. We therefore now have two strong connects — our parent brand Birla and our brand ambassador Kapil Dev".

Kapil Dev, also known as the Haryana Hurricane, was born on 6 January 1959 in Chandigarh. He played his first competitive game of cricket at the age of 13 years and made his test debut on 16 October 1978 at Faisalabad against Pakistan. Kapil Dev remained India's top strike bowler for almost 15 years. His extraordinary test match figures of more than 5000 runs and 434 wickets along with 64 catches show that he was a world class cricketer and an all-rounder. He has raised the mantle of India to sporting glory by winning us the World Cup.

In a study conducted by BSLI, Kapil Dev connected extremely well with the life insurance category and had high acceptance by the masses. Our survey suggests that he is seen as a very good fit for the the BSLI brand. He is very much loved and respected by a vast majority of the population.

On 26 November 2006, Birla Sun Life will host the annual golf tournament at the Chembur Golf Club in Mumbai where Kapil Dev will participate.

About Birla Sun Life Insurance
Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Limited is a joint venture between the Aditya Birla Group, one of the largest business houses in India and Sun Life Financial Inc., a leading international financial services organisation. The local knowledge of the Aditya Birla Group combined with the expertise of Sun Life Financial Inc., offers a formidable protection for your future.

Birla Sun Life Insurance (BSLI), in its five successful years of operations, has contributed significantly to the growth and development of the life insurance industry in India. It pioneered the launch of unit linked life insurance plans amongst the private players in India. It was the first player in the industry to sell its policies through the bancassurance route and through the internet. It was the first private sector player to introduce a pure term plan in the Indian market. This was supported by sales practices which brought a degree of transparency that was entirely new to the market. The process of getting sales illustrations signed by customers and offering a free look period on all policies, which are now industry standards, were introduced by BSLI. Being a customer-centric company, BSLI has invested heavily in technology to build world class processing capabilities. BSLI has covered more than a million lives since inception and its customer base is spread across more than 1000 towns and cities in India. All this has assisted the company in cementing its place amongst the leaders in the industry in terms of new business premium income. The company's current capital base is Rs.520 crore.

Additional information is available at www.birlasunlife.com

About the Aditya Birla Group
The Aditya Birla Group has a turnover close to Rs.38,000 crore (as on 31 March 2006) and is one of the largest business houses in India. It enjoys a leadership position in all the sectors in which it operates. With over 75 business units spanning the South East Asian belt, Africa, Canada and the UK among others, it is reckoned as India's first multinational corporation. The group is anchored by 72,000 employees and has seven lakh shareholders, with a market capitalisation of Rs.53,400 crore.

Additional information is available at www.adityabirla.com

About Sun Life Financial Inc.
Sun Life Financial Inc. is a leading international financial services organisation providing a diverse range of wealth accumulation and protection products and services to individuals and corporate customers. Tracing its roots back to 1865, Sun Life Financial and its partners today have operations in key markets worldwide, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China and Bermuda. As of 31 March 2006, the Sun Life Financial group of companies had total assets under management of US$ 343 billion.

Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under ticker symbol "SLF".

Additional information can be found at: www.sunlife.com

For further information kindly contact:
Ms. Anjana Grewal,
Sr. Vice President - Marketing & Communication,
Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Limited,
Tel: 022-6678 3333.
Email: anjana@birlasunlife.com