Buy ICICI Pru Life; target of Rs 660: Emkay Global Financial

Emkay Global Financial's research report on ICICI Pru Life

ICICI Pru Life delivered in-line results for Q1FY24, with a marginal beat of 2.6% on APE to Rs14.6bn; however, VNB margin at 30% came in slightly below our estimate of 31%, thus driving in-line VNB at Rs4.4bn. The margin moderation was primarily on account of higher expenses, as Management focus on growth is being backed by investments in augmenting distributing channels and increasing productivity. PAT at Rs2.1bn grew 32.4% YoY (Emkay est: Rs1.6bn), likely driven by higher back-book profit. Retail protection APE growth at 61% YoY to Rs 1.1bn affirmed the bounce-back of retail protection.

Outlook

Comforted by the commentary around growth in the ex-ICICI Bank channels, we increase our FY24-26E APE and retain our BUY rating on the stock, with revised Jun-24E target price of Rs660/share (implied FY25E P/EV: 2x).