The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) reported standalone net profit rose 9.61% in the June quarter to ₹10,461 crore, from ₹9,544 crore a year earlier.

The higher net profit came on a 15.66% increase in total premium income to ₹1,13,770 crore (₹98,363 crore). The value of new business increased by 23.66% to ₹1,610 crore, while VNB margin (net) increased by 20 bps to 13.9%, LIC said in a release on Thursday.

Total individual business premium increased 7.04% to ₹67,192 crore (₹62,773 crore). The group business total premium income was ₹46,578 crore (₹35,590 crore), an increase of 30.87%.

Consolidated net profit of the insurance behemoth, for the June quarter, stood at ₹10,544.33 crore, an increase of 9.43% from the ₹9,634.99 crore year earlier.

“Our market share increased to 64.02% compared to 61.42% for the same quarter of previous year and 58.87% in 2023-24,” CEO and MD Siddhartha Mohanty said. For the quarter ended June, LIC had a market share of 39.27% in individual business and 76.59% in the group business.

He said LIC is progressing on its stated objective of gaining market share after having focused during last year on consolidating changes in product mix, channel mix and margin improvement. The momentum around increasing share of non par products within individual segment continues and its non par share, on an APE basis, within the individual business has increased to 23.94% in the first quarter of FY25 as compared to 10.22% year earlier.

“While achieving these growth parameters our margin is stable and expenses ratio has declined by 98 bps to 11.87% in this quarter,” said Mr.Mohanty, addressing media with senior officials. The solvency ratio as on June 30 increased to 1.99 (1.89).

Health foray

On LIC’s proposed health insurance foray, he said preliminary work has begun internally towards acquiring majority stake in a standalone health insurance company. The plan is to create a separate health insurance entity for the foray ahead of proposed issue of composite insurance licence in the country.

To queries on sequential decline in profit – standalone net profit for March quarter was ₹13,762.64 crore – a senior official said not only LIC but any insurer get substantial business during last quarter of fiscal. “Sequentially [net profit] it will go up,” he said.

The gains from equity investment in the June quarter totalled around ₹15,500 crore, an increase of 13.5% y-o-y.

Discussions on

On changes proposed by insurance regulator IRDAI to surrender value or the relatively higher amount life insurers have to pay to those terminating policies from October, the officials said the life insurers are engaging with regulator to find the best way for implementation of regulatory requirements. While all life insurers are for customer first approach, the industry also ought to survive, an official said, hinting at the deadline getting extended.

Separately, in a filing, LIC said LIC of Bangladesh Ltd has partially resumed operations with effect from August 08. “The situation in Bangladesh has still not reached the stage of normalcy and may continue to hamper the operations.”