Profits Fall, But Persistency Improves

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. saw its net profit for the July-September quarter fall year-on-year.

The private insurer’s net profit for the quarter stood at Rs 200 crore, down 55% from the September quarter of last year, according to an exchange filing.

Sequentially, the bottom line improved by 28%.

The company earned a net premium of Rs 9,582 crore, a 3% increase from over a year ago. Renewal premiums and single premiums reported an increase, while the first-year premiums saw a decline over the September quarter a year ago.

ICICI Prudential Life Q2 FY23 Highlights (YoY)

• Revenue stood at Rs 22,904 crore, down 1% from a year ago.

• The 13th- and 61st-month persistency ratios—or customer retention—by premium improved to 84% and 65.4% from 81.2% and 50.2%, respectively.

• Solvency ratio—that measures the extent to which assets cover commitments for future liabilities—stood at 200.7% from 199.9%. It’s above the minimum requirement of 150%.

“On the back of this strong VNB growth and with a favourable premium base for the coming months, we believe we are on track to achieve our objective of doubling our FY2019 VNB by the end of this fiscal year,” said NS Kannan, managing director and chief executive officer at ICICI Prudential Life in a statement.

Their two focus areas of annuity and protection, which represent underserved needs of the country, have also done well in the period, he said in the statement. “With a solvency ratio of over 200%, which is well above the regulatory requirement, we are well positioned to capitalise on this opportunity.”

The strong performance, he said, enabled them to maintain their position as the private sector market leader on a new business sum assured basis, which grew by 42.3% year-on-year with a market share of 15.7%.