The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the largest insurance company by market capitalisation in India, said profitable growth is its main objective.
In accordance with its objective of profitable growth, the company plans to have a pipeline of good margin products that will be promoted, LIC said in a conference call with analysts on May 25.
Non participating (Non par) products are generally better margin products in a favourable interest rate cycle, said the head of private wealth management at a financial services company.
The insurer is gradually aiming to diversify its product mix by increasing its non par business share. This is evident from LIC’s individual business share of Non-par climbing higher to 8.89 percent in FY23, from 7.12 percent in FY22.
However, the company said that participating (Par) products is LIC’s strength and it will not compromise on that.
On an annualised premium equivalent (APE) basis, the share of par products and non par products was 91.11 percent and 8.89 percent, respectively.
“We believe a gradual shift in mix will aid VNB (value of new business) margin expansion by 400bps to 19 percent in FY25 from 15.1 percent in FY22,” a report by BOB Capital Markets had said last month.
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The financials
The state-owned life insurance company on Wednesday posted a standalone net profit of Rs 13,427.8 crore for the quarter ended March FY23, growing 466 percent over the corresponding period in the last fiscal. The standalone net profit for the March FY22 quarter stood at Rs 2,371.5 crore. The sequential growth in profit was 112 percent.
The multifold jump in net profit comes after LIC moved nearly Rs 7,300 crore to a shareholders' fund to shore up its bottom line, as per reports. LIC said it transferred Rs 7,298.9 crore rupees from its non-participating fund to the shareholders' fund for the quarter, bringing the total to 272.41 billion rupees for the fiscal year ended March 31.
At 12:40 pm, shares of the insurance behemoth were trading at Rs 615.65, up 1.8 percent, on BSE.
Reuters had reported last year that the insurer was planning to transfer Rs 1.8 trillion from policy holders' funds into the fund, which is earmarked to pay dividends or issue bonus shares.
Meanwhile, LIC’s solvency ratio -- a measure of an insurer's ability to meet its long-term debt obligations -- improved to 1.87 from 1.85 a year earlier. The 13th month persistency ratio -- indicator of policyholder loyalty -- increased to 70.16 percent for the quarter ended March FY23, from 69.24 percent a year-ago. This means more policyholders are sticking with LIC beyond one year.
However, 25th month persistency ratio fell to 63.84 percent in Q4 of FY23, from 68.23 percent in the year ago period.
