Indian insurer ICICI Prudential's key margin shrinks in H1 on sale of market-linked policies

Icici Prudential Life Insurance

22/10/2024 14:42

BENGALURU, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Indian insurer ICICI
Prudential Life Insurance Company  ICIR.NS  on Tuesday reported
a decline in a key margin in the first half of the fiscal year
due to higher sales of market-linked policies.
    Demand for market- or unit-linked insurance plans (ULIPs)
has been strong in recent quarters, driven by India's rising
equity market.
    More sales of such policies, which have a lower profit
margin, lead to the contraction of value of new business (VNB)
margins for insurers.
    ICICI Prudential's VNB margin dropped to 23.7% for the
half-year ended Sept. 30 from 28.8% a year earlier as the share
of ULIPs in the product mix jumped to 51.6% from 42.4%.
    Its annualised premium equivalent sales, a key metric that
gives annualised total value of all single premium and recurring
premium policies, rose 26.8% to 44.67 billion rupees ($531.44
million) for the half-year.
    The insurer's profit rose 3% on-year to 2.52 billion rupees
for the quarter ended Sept. 30, while its net premium income
grew around 7%.
    Shares of the company ended down 2.5% ahead of the results.
 
($1 = 84.0540 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Nishit Navin; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
 ((Nishit.Navin@thomsonreuters.com;))