New Delhi | Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) on Thursday reported a 10 per cent rise in its net profit to Rs 10,461 crore in the June 2024 quarter.
The state-owned life insurance behemoth had a net profit of Rs 9,544 crore in the year-ago period.
The total income increased to Rs 2,10,910 crore during the latest June quarter as against Rs 1,88,749 crore in the year-ago period, LIC said in a regulatory filing.
MD and CEO Siddhartha Mohanty said the Assets Under Management (AUM) increased to Rs 53,58,781 crore as on June 30 as compared to Rs 46,11,067 crore at the end of same quarter previous year, registering an increase of 16.22 per cent.
The total premium income for the quarter increased by 16 per cent to Rs 1,13,770 crore as compared to Rs 98,363 crore in the same quarter a year ago.
Asked about entry into health insurance business, he said, LIC is exploring the option of picking up majority stakes in a standalone health insurance company.
"We propose to have separate health insurance business. We want to pick up majority stake in a standalone health insurance company," he said.
During the quarter under review, the first-year premium rose to Rs 7,470 crore as against Rs 6,811 crore in the year-ago period, it said.
The insurer earned Rs 56,429 crore from renewal premiums as against Rs 53,638 crore a year ago.
Net income from investments during the quarter rose to Rs 96,183 crore as compared to Rs 90,309 crore in the April-June period of previous fiscal.
Mohanty said LIC intends to keep its investment in the equity markets during the current fiscal at the same level of last financial year.
During the last financial year, LIC invested Rs 1.32 lakh crore in the equity market, he said, adding, during the first quarter of the current financial year, the investment was Rs 38,000 crore as against Rs 23,300 crore in the same period a year ago.
The Value of New Business (VNB) was Rs 1,610 crore as compared to Rs 1,302 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2023, registering a growth of 23.66 per cent. The net VNB margin for the quarter ended June 30, 2024 increased by 20 bps to 13.9 per cent as compared to 13.7 per cent in the same quarter a year ago.
Solvency margin of LIC increased to 1.99 per cent as compared to 1.89 per cent in the same quarter a year ago.
On the asset quality front, gross non-performing assets ratio eased to 1.95 per cent from 2.48 per cent in the same period a year ago.
During the first quarter of this financial year, he said, "our market share increased to 64.02 per cent as compared to 61.42 per cent for the same quarter of previous year and 58.87 per cent for the full year ended March 31, 2024."
LIC is progressing on its stated objective of gaining market share after having focused, during the last year, on consolidating changes in product mix, channel mix and margin improvement, he said.
The momentum around increasing share of non par products within individual segment continues and our non par share, on an APE basis, within the individual business has increased to 23.94 per cent in the first quarter of FY25 as compared to 10.22 per cent in the same quarter last year.
While achieving these growth parameters our margin is stable and our expenses ratio has declined by 98 bps to 11.87 per cent in this quarter.
"As leader of the insurance industry in India we are conscious of our responsibility to deliver enhanced insurance penetration and we look forward to working with the regulatory authorities to achieve the same. We are committed to further optimizing our product and channel mix and improvement of margins," he said.
With the digital transformation exercise underway LIC intends to create a seamless experience for customers and partners.
Commenting on its Bangladesh operation, Mohanty said LIC of Bangladesh Ltd. has partially resumed operations with effect from August 8, 2024.
The situation in Bangladesh has still not reached the stage of normalcy and may continue to hamper the operations, he said.
LIC is in touch with its local staff and also apprised of the situation to the Department of Financial Services, he said.
