MUMBAI: The Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has reported a street-beating set of numbers, with net income growing by 5% to Rs 10,987 crore in the June quarter. The national insurer has also improved its margins, which has helped boost the bottom line. In the trailing 12-month period, it had booked Rs 10,461.05 crore in net income.
LIC's net premium income for the quarter rose to Rs 1,19,618.41 crore, up 4.7% on-year when it was Rs 1,14,230.24 crore.
While the key new business premium grew 4.9% to Rs 60,262 crore in the reporting quarter from Rs 57,441 crore a year ago, the margin from its new business jumped to 15.4% from 13.9% a in June 2024, the company’s recently appointed chief executive R Doraiswamy told reporters in the earnings call Thursday evening.
“The key profitability metric VNB margin has increased by 150 bps to 15.4% on-year, while our expense ratio has declined by 140 bps to 10.47 in this quarter," Doraiswamy added.
He said the total annualised premium equivalent (APE) jumped 9.45% to Rs 12,652 from Rs 11,560 crore, of which retail APE rose 4.6% to Rs 7,061 crore from Rs 6,747 crore and the value of new business (VNB) soared 20.75% to Rs 1,944 crore from Rs 1,610 crore while the VNB margin jumped by 150 bps to 15.4% from 13.9% a year ago.
All this pushed the new business premium income to Rs 60,262 crore, up 5% over the same period last year.
Non-par APE share within the individual business stood at 30.34% for the quarter, compared to 23.94% in the same quarter last year, said Doraiswamy who assumed office only in the second week of July.
On the other hand, individual business non-par APE rose 32.63% to Rs 2,142 crore and group business APE increased 16.14% to Rs 5,590 crore, while the overall APE increased by 9.45% to Rs 12,652 crore.
The assets under management of LIC saw a healthy 6.47% increase to Rs 57.05 trillion, making it the largest financial investor in the country.
LIC said that in terms of market share measured by first-year premium income, it continues to be the leader with an overall share of 63.51%.
"For the reporting quarter, we had a market share of 38.76% in individual business and 76.54% in the group business," said Doraiswamy, adding the yield on its investments in policyholders' funds, excluding unrealised gains, was marginally down to 8.45% for the reporting quarter from 8.54% a year ago.
The solvency ratio of LIC rose to 2.17 in the reporting period from 1.99 a year ago.
Asset quality meanwhile improved, with gross non-performing assets and net NPAs coming down 21% and 36% on-year to Rs 8,436.5 crore and Rs 4 crore, respectively. Gross NPA ratio stood at 1.42 as against 1.95 in the same period last year.