LIC India’s profit rises to Rs 235 crore in December quarter

LIC IPO (Representative image)

Profit after tax of state-run Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) increased to Rs 234.91 crore ($30.7 million) in the three months to December from Rs 0.91 crore a year earlier, according to the insurer's website.

Profit for the nine months ended December climbed to Rs 1,642.78 crore from Rs 7.08 crore a year earlier.

The IPO-bound company had booked profit worth Rs 29,102 crore from the sale of investments in the first six months of the current financial year.

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LIC had filed its draft papers for IPO on February 13. The government is aiming to sell close to 5 percent stake in the life insurance major through the IPO. The profit from sales of investments, largely equity assets, were already at 63 percent of the record profits amassed by the life insurer of Rs 46,187 crore for the financial year ended March 2021.

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Prior to that, on January 25, LIC had reported a profit after tax of Rs 1,437 crore for the first half of the financial year 2021-22 as compared with Rs 6.14 crore in the year-ago period. Its new business premium growth rate stood at 554.1 per cent in H1FY22, compared with 394.76 per cent during the corresponding period of the preceding financial year, LIC had said. Its overall total net premiums increased Rs 1,679 crore to Rs 1.86 lakh crore during April-September 2021, from Rs 1.84 lakh crore in the year-ago period.

Meanwhile, the LIC IPO could be pushed to the next financial year as the government is likely to hold a meeting to reassess the timing in view of the escalating Russia-Ukraine war, sources told CNBC TV18 on March 1. The meeting for a likely reassessment of LIC listing will be held "this week", a government official privy to the development told the news channel.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had "stated the government position" on the matter, the official said, referring to her remarks during a recent interview with Hindu Business Line, where she suggested that the emerging global situation may warrant a relook at the IPO timing. “Ideally, I’d like to go ahead with it because we had planned it for some time based purely on Indian considerations," Sitharaman told the newspaper, adding that "if global considerations warrant that I need to look at it, I wouldn’t mind looking at it again".

[This is a developing story. Check back for more details.]