The national insurer Life Insurance Corporation has reported a robust set of numbers with the net income jumping 22.81% in the June quarter to Rs 13,492 crore, driven by a 750 bps expansion in margins and robust sales, especially a sharp 61% increase in the value of new businesses led by non-par products.
Addressing the media Thursday, chief executive R Doraiswamy said, “while the value of our new business (VNB) has grown by over 61.3% to Rs 3,136 crore, the VNB margin has expanded by a robust 750 bps to 22.90% this year as a direct outcome of product diversification and distribution strategy,” Doraiswamy said.
He also expressed the hope that with 10% liquidity in the stock (after the government’s 6.5% additional stake sale completed Wednesday) the illiquidity hangover on the shares would be over. He also ruled out another stake dilution by the government in the short to medium term.
With assets under management of Rs 59.39 trillion, which rose ) 4.10% on year, the company netted Rs 2,500 crore in net income, which rose 42% on-year.
Doraiswamy explained that the marginal increase in the overall expense ratio 10.63% from 10.47% in the quarter was due to absence of input tax credit after the government removed GST on individual policies in September last year.
Total premium income rose 6.75% to Rs 1.27 trillion of which individual new business premium income increased by 14.48% to Rs 14,351 crore and group business APE (annualized premium equivalent) rose 10.20% to Rs 6,160 crore, taking the total to individual business premium to Rs 75,416 crore from Rs 71,474 crore, an increase of 5.52%. The group business total premium income stood at Rs 51,834 crore, up 8.6% from, Doraiswamy said.
While the overall APE rose 8.22% to Rs 13,692 crore, the non-par APE within individual business rose 14.24% to Rs 2,447 crore. Non-par APE share within individual business stood at 32.49% compared to 30.34% a year ago. The key solvency ratio increased to 2.42 from 2.17 in the quarter under review.
LIC continues to maintain leadership in both individual and group businesses, overall market share by first year premium income at 60.10% and 38.89% in individual business and 70.90% in group business.
A total of 31,02,281 policies were sold in the individual segment during the quarter compared to 30,39,709 policies in the same quarter in 2025 registering an increase of 2.06%.
On an APE basis, total premium was Rs 13,692 crore. Of this 55.01% or Rs 7,532 crore came in from individual business and 44.99% or Rs 6,160 crore from group business. Within the individual business, the share of par products was 67.51% or Rs 5,085 crore, and the balance 32.49% ro Rs 2,447 crore came in from non-par products.
The non-par APE has increased from Rs 2,142 crore to Rs 2,447 crore a growth of 14.24%. Thus on an APE basis, the non-par share of individual business, which was 30.34% in June 2025 has grown to 32.49% in June 2026, Doraiswamy said.
The persistency ratios on premium basis for the 13th month and 61st month were 75.33% and 61.12%, respectively. The comparable persistency ratios for the corresponding quarter were 75.63% and 63.85%.
