MUMBAI: SBI Life Insurance has reported a 6.6 percent on-year fall in net income to Rs 494.6 crore in the September quarter despite the largest private sector life insurer saw its premium income growing by 22.6 Percent.
The company said the bottomline was helped by a Rs 322.33 crore earnings from investments under the shareholders’ account during the quarter, higher than Rs 282.57 crore a year earlier.
SBI promoted company said Friday that its premium income for the second quarter grew 22.6 percent on-year to Rs 24,848.3 crore, aided by stronger performance in both first-year and renewal premia. First-year premium rose to Rs 5,289.5 crore while renewal premium increased to Rs 1,400.28 crore.
The statement did not offer any reason for the fall in net income, though a part of which could be attributed to the abolition of the GST on retail premium which also ended the input tax credit, which normally comes in the 2.5-4 percent range, depending on the product.
The company said its new business premium rose to Rs 18,349 crore for the period from Rs 15,725 crore a year ago, while regular premium has increased by 10 percent.
Establishing a clear focus on protection, protection new business premium stood at Rs 2,211 crore marking a growth of 29 Percent. Within in this individual protection premium rose to Rs 371 crore, taking the total to Rs 12,175 crore, which is a 6 percent growth over the corresponding period.
Private market leadership in individual new business premium rose to 25.4 percent .
Annualized premium equivalent rose 10 percent to Rs 9,917 crore, and total new business sum assured rose 99% to Rs 7,11,739 crore and the value of new business rose 14 percent to Rs 2,753 crore with the new business margin stands at 27.8 percent. SBI Life’s AUM grew 10 percent to Rs 4,81,465 crore from Rs 4,38,954 crore.
The company's expense ratio stood at 11 percent compared to 10.57 in the same quarter last year and its solvency ratio stood at 1.94, slightly lower than 2.04 a year earlier.
Persistency ratio remained steady with the 13th-month persistency on premium basis improved to 85.37 percent from 84.16 percent last year.
The insurer continued to record strong growth in linked business. Linked individual life premium rose to Rs 10,156.4 crore lakh from Rs 8,504.13 crore last year.
