ICICI Pru Life profit down 34%

Private sector ICICI Prudential Life Insurance posted a 34.35 per cent drop in net profit in the third quarter of the fiscal, coupled with low growth in first-year premium and income from investments.

The insurer had posed a 28.5 per cent decline in net profit in the second quarter of the fiscal as well. For the quarter ended December 31, 2018, net profit stood at ₹296.77 crore against ₹ 452.10 crore in the third quarter of last fiscal.

“Profit after tax decreased from ₹12.79 billion in the nine months of 2017-18 to ₹8.79 billion in the nine months of 2018-19, primarily on account of higher new business strain resulting from the new business growth of protection and annuity business,” ICICI Pru Life Insurance said on Tuesday.

For the nine months of the fiscal year, value of new business rose by 18.6 per cent to ₹910 crore when compared to ₹767 crore in the same period a year ago.

Shares of the private sector life insurer fell 2.12 per cent and closed at ₹344 apiece on the BSE.