Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) on Thursday reported a 9.61 per cent rise in net profit at ₹10,461 crore for the quarter ended June 30. Net profit in the corresponding quarter of the previous year was ₹9,544 crore.

The growth in profit was supported by a 15.66 per cent rise in total premium income, which was at ₹1,13,770 crore compared with ₹98,363 crore. While the total premium on individual business grew 7.04 per cent, group business premium income grew 30.87 per cent. Individual new business premium income grew 13.67 per cent to ₹11,892 crore during the quarter.

The insurer has seen a decrease in overall expense ratio of 98 basis points to 11.87 per cent compared with 12.85 per cent in the corresponding previous quarter. The net value of new business margin saw an increase of 20 basis points at 13.9 per cent compared with 13.7 per cent a year ago.

“During the first quarter, our market share increased to 64.02 per cent compared with 61.42 per cent a year ago and 58.87 per cent for the full year ended March 31, 2024. 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,” said Siddhartha Mohanty, MD and CEO, LIC.

The life insurer has also seen a shift in the individual APE (annualised premium equivalent) product mix in favour of non-participating policies to 23.94 per cent compared with 10.22 per cent in the year ago period, while the share of participating policies has come down from 89.78 per cent to 76.06 per cent.

“The momentum around increasing the share of non par products in individual segment continues,” Mohanty said.

The LIC MD said discussions are on with the insurance regulator on the proposed surrender value norms, which are expected to come into force from October.

In a separate filing, the life insurer said operations of LIC of Bangladesh has partially resumed effective from Thursday.

SAIL profit falls 61%

SAIL on Thursday posted a 61.51 per cent fall in consolidated net profit at ₹81.78 crore, mainly on account of reduced income. It had reported a net profit of ₹212.48 crore a year ago.

Total income declined to ₹24,174.80 crore from ₹24,822.83 crore a year ago.

With inputs from PTI