LIC Outpaces Private Peers In September

Life Insurance Corp. outpaced private peers on revenue growth in September.

The industry's new business premium stood at Rs 36,367 crore in September, according to provisional data released by the Life Insurance Council. That's an increase of 9% year-on-year and 42% in the pre-pandemic month of September 2019. The year-on-year growth came despite an 18% fall in the total number of policies sold.

In August, revenue was up 5% while the number of policies sold rose 16%.

Key Highlights

• New business premium of private insurers rose 1% year-on-year to Rs 11,375 crore in September. Sequentially, it grew 3%.

• LIC's revenue rose 21% over September last year to Rs 24,991 crore. The year-on-year growth was supported by group single and non-single segments. The top line was up 9% over August.

"Driven by some group regular premium, new business APE growth for LIC improved," Emkay Global said in a report. "But some more clarity on this group regular business is required for assessing the quality of the growth."

Emkay Global attributed slower growth for private insurers to:

• A stronger base of Q2FY22 when retail annualised premium equivalent rose 35% year-on-year for the private sector.

• Sustained weakness in retail protection demand.

• Volatile capital markets and macroeconomic environment.

• Channel-specific issues at some players.

It estimates the life industry's APE to grow 12-13% in FY23, with the private sector growing in the mid-to-high teens and LIC in a high single-digit. "Considering their product diversification, distribution mix and better cost efficiencies, listed private players are expected to see growth, with higher margins," the brokerage said.

Half-Yearly Performance

• Total revenue of life insurers was up 28% over a year earlier at Rs 1.8 lakh crore.

• LIC outpaced private peers, growing 34% to a revenue of Rs 1.2 lakh crore, while the private insurers top line rose 23% to Rs 57,786 crore.

How India's listed private insurers fared in September 2022:

HDFC Life Insurance Co.

• Revenue, excluding Exide Life, was down 4.3% year-on-year. It was also down 4.9% from the previous month at Rs 2,166 crore in September.

• New business premium was up 3.3% year-on-year and jumped 37% sequentially to Rs 6,188 crore in the quarter ended September.

• Revenue rose 11% in the first half of the year to Rs 11,039 crore.

SBI Life Insurance Co.

• New business premium fell 4.6% year-on-year to Rs 2,471 crore in September. Over August, it rose 6.2%.

• The company continued to report the highest revenue among private peers.

• New business premium declined 1.5% year-on-year, while it surged 35% sequentially to Rs 7,496 crore in the quarter ended September.

• For H1FY23, the revenue rose 22% to Rs 13,087 crore.

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co.

• New business premium stood at Rs 1,410 crore in September, falling 7% year-on-year and over the previous month.

• Revenue rose 7.7% over a year earlier and 39% sequentially to Rs 4,175 crore in the quarter ended September.

• Premium was up 11% in the first half at Rs 7,359 crore.