India's ICICI Lombard posts higher profit as tax breaks lift motor, health insurance demand
India's ICICI Lombard posts higher profit as tax breaks lift motor, health insurance demand Oct 14 (Reuters) - ICICI Lombard General Insurance ICIL.NS, India's largest private-sector insurer, reported a 15.5% rise in second-quarter profit on Wednesday, helped by higher retail sales of motor and health insurance policies.
The country's non-life insurance sector is seeing steady automobile demand after last year's tax cuts, alongside rising healthcare costs.
Net profit rose to 9.46 billion rupees ($99.42 million) in the July-September quarter, from 8.2 billion rupees a year earlier
Motor insurance, ICICI Lombard's biggest business, recorded net premium growth of 9%. Retail health net premiums increased 49.5% while corporate health premiums rose 47.5% from a year earlier
Net premiums earned rose 17.7% to 66.52 billion rupees during the quarter
ICICI Lombard's combined ratio, a measure of underwriting performance, worsened to 107% from 105.1% a year earlier
The company's shares have fallen about 13% so far this year, compared with a 13.4% fall in India's benchmark Nifty 50 .NSEI index
($1 = 95.1500 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Abhinav Parmar in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
((Abhinav.Parmar@thomsonreuters.com;))
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