ICICI Prudential Life Q2 Results: Profits Fall, But Persistency Improves

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

• Value of new business—present value of the future profits associated with new business written during the period—grew 25% to Rs 1,092 crore.

• Embedded value stood at Rs 32,648 crore versus Rs 30,203 crore during the six months last year, growing 8%.

• VNB margin expanded to 31% from 27.3%.

• After-tax profits were up 37% at Rs 35,668 crore.

• The company's overall cost ratio remained elevated; it went up to 21.6% from 17.8%.

• New business premium grew 14% to Rs 7,359 crore.

• Annuity business grew 69% and protection grew 29%, while savings increased 2.7%.

• Protection contributed 20.2% of overall annualised premium equivalent from 17.2% last year.

• Persistency ratios by premiums improved across all cohorts.

• Assets under management grew 3% to Rs 2.4 lakh crore.

"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%.