Life Insurance Corporation of India reported an 18 per cent drop in its standalone net profit to ₹2,371.55 crore in Q4FY22 from ₹2,893.44 crore in the same period last year
The premium income saw a healthy growth but operating expenses and net benefits paid also increased.
On a consolidated basis, its net profit was 17.4 per cent lower at ₹2,409.29 crore for the fourth quarter of last fiscal compared to ₹2,917.33 crore in Q4FY21.
For FY22, its net profit shot up by 39.4 per cent to ₹4,043.12 crore from ₹2,900.56 crore in 2020-21.
Maiden dividend
The board of the newly listed life insurer has recommended a maiden dividend of ₹ 1.50 per equity share for the fiscal 2021-22, subject to the shareholders’ approval , LIC said in a stock exchange filing on Monday.
This is the first quarterly results since its ₹21,000 crore initial public offering earlier this month and the investors were looking forward to a higher dividend pay out.
Premium income
For the quarter ended March 31, 2022, the LIC reported an 18.2 per cent increase in its net premium income to ₹1,43,745.91 crore from ₹1,21,626.05 crore in the same period in the corresponding quarter.
First year premium increased 33.4 per cent year-on-year to ₹14,614.25 crore in the fourth quarter of 2021-22 while renewal premium increased 5.5 per cent to ₹71,157.89 crore in the same period. Single premium grew by 34.5 per cent to ₹58,198.16 crore in the January to March 2022 quarter.
Net benefits paid was 19 per cent higher year-on-year at ₹1,21,948.98 crore in the fourth quarter of 2021-22.
The solvency ratio was at 1.85 for the quarter ended March 31, 2021 from 1.76 a year ago.
Policy renewals
Its 13th month persistency, which is a key parameter to gauge renewal of policies, fell to 69.24 per cent at the end of the fourth quarter of last fiscal versus 73.94 per cent in the same period in the previous fiscal.
LIC scrip closed 1.89 per cent higher at ₹837.05 a piece on BSE on Monday. Its scrip had listed on May 17 at an 8 per cent discount to its issue price of ₹949 apiece.