HDFC Life Insurance posted a net profit of ₹1,157 crore for the nine-month period ended December 2023, a growth of 16 per cent year-on-year.

Number of policies for HDFC Life grew 9 per cent, outpacing private and overall industry, and taking the total number of lives covered to nearly 5 crore across the individual and group businesses.

Total premium for 9M FY24 rose 11 per cent y-o-y to ₹42,139 crore led by 15 per cent growth in renewal premium and 7 per cent in new business premium. The insurer’s market share in terms of new business premium fell to 19.8 per cent from 20.3 per cent a year ago.

Value of new business was up 5 per cent to ₹2,267 crore, whereas new business margins were flat at 26.5 per cent from the year-ago period.

Annualised premium equivalent (APE) too rose 5 per cent to ₹8,564 led by 6 per cent growth in individual APE to ₹7,271 crore. Based on individual APE, retail protection segment grew 36 per cent y-o-y and credit protect segment by 21 per cent.

“Towards the latter part of Q3FY24, we introduced Click 2 Achieve, an industry first, do-it-yourself (DIY) non-par savings product. The product has been received well across channels and garnered ₹100 crore within 4 weeks of its launch. This is our second ‘100 crore in a month’ blockbuster product to be launched this year,” said MD and CEO Vibha Padalkar.

Tier-2,-3 growth

Growth from tier-2 and -3 markets was 14 per cent, with total AUM rising 20 per cent to ₹2.8-lakh crore as at the end of December 2023.

The 13-month persistency ratio, a measure of customer stickiness fell slightly to 86 per cent from 87 per cent, but improved for the 61st month to 54 per cent from 52 per cent.

HDFC Life’s embedded value rose 20 per cent to ₹45,173 crore. The solvency ratio was at 190 per cent compared with 209 per cent in the previous year.

“We expect to grow by leveraging multiple drivers including strengthened market position at HDFC Bank, capitalising on ongoing investments such as branch expansion and new tie-ups, continuing to scale up a high-quality proprietary business led by agency and favourable macro environment shifts,” Padalkar said.

The insurer recently entered into bancassurance partnerships with Karnataka Bank, Karur Vysya Bank and NKGSB Co-operative Bank.

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