LIC Q2 net profit surges 49% to Rs 9,444 crore

New Delhi: State-owned insurer LIC on Thursday reported a 49 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 9,444 crore for the third quarter ended December 30 helped by higher net premium.

The country's biggest insurer had a net profit of Rs 6,334 crore in the year-ago period, LIC said in a regulatory filing.

Its net premium income eased to Rs 1,17,017 crore in the third quarter of the current fiscal, from Rs 1,11,788 crore in the same period a year ago.

LIC's total income declined to Rs 2,12,447 crore in the latest December quarter, compared to Rs 1,96,891 crore in the year-ago period, it said.

The board LIC has approved an interim dividend of Rs 4 per equity share of face value Rs 10 each for the FY'24.

The asset under management (AUM) of the insurer increased to Rs 49.66 lakh crore as compared to Rs 44.34 lakh crore at the end of December 2022, registering a growth of 12 per cent.

At the same time solvency ratio improved to 1.93 as compared to 1.85 times at the end of December 2022.

For the first nine months ended December 2023, LIC recorded a profit of Rs 26,913 crore as compared to Rs 26,913 crore in the same period a year ago.

The current period profit includes an amount of Rs 21,461 crore (Net of Tax), pertaining to the accretions on the available solvency margin, transferred from Non Par fund to shareholders account, LIC Chairman Siddhartha Mohanty said n a media interaction.

The profit for the nine months that ended on December 31, 2022 was Rs 22,970 crore is not comparable since it included an amount of Rs 4,542 crore (Net of Tax) pertaining to the accretions on the Available Solvency Margin for the last quarter of 2021-22 which was transferred from Non Par fund to shareholders account on September 30, 2022, he said.

In terms of market share measured by First Year Premium Income (FYPI) (as per IRDAI), LIC continues to be the market leader by market share in Indian life insurance business with overall market share of 58.90 per cent. For nine months ended December 31 2023, LIC had a market share of 38.74 per cent in Individual business and 72.24 per cent in group business.

The total premium income for nine nine-month period ended December 31, 2023, was Rs 3,22,776 crore as compared to Rs 3,42,244 crore for the nine-month period ended December 31 2022 during the previous year.

The Board also accorded approval to the proposal of the Corporation to subscribe to the Memorandum jointly with one or more entities to be incorporated for providing a one-stop electronic platform for life, health and general insurance needs.

Consent of the board has been granted for subscription to the equity share capital of the said company not exceeding 8.3 per cent of the initial issued and subscribed share capital in the first tranche.

Commenting on the numbers Mohanty said, "Our consistent and focused approach towards diversifying and changing our product mix is now yielding results at a faster pace. The same is evident in the rise in the share of Non Par business on Annualized Premium Equivalent (APE) basis to 14.04 per cent of our total individual business for the first nine months of FY 2024."

The fact that this is also accompanied by 200 bps increase in the Value of New Business (VNB) margin levels to 16.6 per cent is an indicator that the strategic interventions are delivering in the manner that we envisaged, he said.

"We want to make sure that every action of ours is value accretive to all stakeholders. We will relentlessly pursue our targeted product and channel mix with the support of all our employees, agency force and channel partners," he said.

Mohanty said the Corporation is committed to developing new products designed to meet the evolving needs of customers. With the digital transformation project underway, LIC is confident of making significant improvements in our business processes.