ICICI Prudential Life Q1 results: Net profit rises 34% to Rs 302 crore

ICICI Prudential Life announces its Q1 FY26 results

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company reported a 34.2 percent year-on-year jump in net profit at Rs 302 crore for the June quarter, up from Rs 225 crore in year-ago period, driven by lower new business strain and increased investment income from shareholders’ funds.

The life insurer saw a marginal decline in its Value of New Business (VNB) to Rs 457 crore from Rs 472 crore in Q1 FY25. However, the VNB margin improved to 24.5 percent from 24 percent, the company said in a release.

Annualised Premium Equivalent (APE) declined 5 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,864 crore following a 9.5 percent drop in savings APE.

Protection APE bucked the trend with a 15.2 percent rise to Rs 409 crore, as the company deepened its push into retail protection and this sub-segment alone grew 24.1 percent to Rs 139 crore.

The company’s new business received premium rose 6.4 percent to Rs 4,012 crore, while total premium collections increased 8.1 percent to Rs 8,954 crore.

Renewal premium income grew 9.4 percent to Rs 4,942 crore, indicating improved policyholder retention.

The company’s assets under management (AUM) rose to Rs 3.24 lakh crore, up 5.1 percent from the previous year.

Operating cost metrics improve

The cost-to-total premium ratio dropped to 21.2 percent from 24 percent a year earlier. Within the savings line of business, the metric improved to 14.1 percent from 16.8 percent.

From a regulatory perspective, the solvency ratio strengthened to 212.3 percent, well above the IRDAI-mandated 150 percent.

The company’s net worth also rose to Rs 12,553 crore from Rs 11,291 crore last year.

On the persistency front, 13th-month persistency (by premium) stood at 80.8 percent, marginally down from 85.7 percent in Q1 FY25. However, longer-term persistency ratios showed improvement, 25th-month persistency increased to 82.5 percent from 79.5 percent, and 49th-month persistency rose to 69.8 percent from 68.2 percent.

Investment income declined, primarily due to reduced unit-linked portfolio returns.

Total investment income fell from Rs 17,521 crore to Rs 16,892 crore. Income from unit-linked portfolios declined to Rs 14,095 crore from Rs 14,818 crore.

The drop was partially offset by an increase in interest income on non-unit-linked investments, which rose to Rs 2,797 crore from Rs 2,702 crore.

Total expenses, including commissions, declined 3.9 percent to Rs 2,068 crore. Operating expenses dropped 10.1 percent, aided by reduced advertising and sales-related spending.

MD & CEO Anup Bagchi said over 54 percent of savings policies were issued on the same day, and claims were settled with a 99.6 percent settlement ratio and a 1.1-day turnaround time for non-investigated cases.

At 2 pm, the ICICI Prudential Life’s stock was trading at Rs 675 on NSE.