ICICI Pru Life Q1 PAT up 33% as premium income grows

Posted on by

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance reported a 33 per cent year-on-year growth in its net profit for the first quarter of FY24 to Rs.207 crore, largely on the back of net premium income and income from investments.

The net premium income rose to ₹7,020 crore as against ₹6,884 crore in the previous year. The insurance company earned net income from investments of Rs. 16,030 crores as compared to a loss of Rs. 9,670 crores.

However, the value of new business (VNB), which represents the present value of future earnings, fell to Rs.438 crore from Rs.471 crore a year earlier. VNB margin was at 30 percent for the quarter, also down from 31 percent for the year-ago period and 32 percent for fiscal ’23.

Total APE (annual premium equivalent) for the quarter was ₹1,461 crore, down 3.9 per cent year on year led by a 6.1 per cent drop in savings and pension products, with all sectors seeing a decline of 1.8-8.1 per cent. APE Protection grew by 4.2 per cent on the back of 61.8 per cent growth in Retail Protection to Rs 110 crore. The share of protective products rose to 23.5 percent of total APE from 21.7 percent a year earlier.

“During 1-FY2024, we have observed an improving trend in the business, with double-digit growth in APE for the month of June 2023. Our efforts towards expanding the protection business is evident in the 62 per cent annual growth in the retail protection segment,” said Anoop Bagchi, Managing Director and CEO.

Lower APE growth was also due to lower ICICI Group share and banking distribution as the insurance company looks to reduce its reliance. Direct channel APE grew by 28.5 per cent to Rs 212 crore, accounting for 14.5 per cent of total business as against 10.9 per cent last year.

Premium growth across agency and partnership distribution channels rose 4.4 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively, according to the investor presentation.

For the 13th month, the stability ratio, a measure of commitment to customers, improved to 86.4 percent from 85.4 percent for FY23 and 85.5 percent for the year-ago period.

Assets Under Management (AUM) grew by 16 per cent year-on-year to INR 2.7 crore as of June 30. The solvency ratio worsened slightly to 203.4 percent from 203.6 percent in the previous quarter and 208.9 percent as of March 2023.

Going forward, the focus will be on data analytics, diverse propositions, digitization and depth in partnerships, the insurance company said.