ICICI Pru Life slips into red, logs Rs 186-crore loss in April-June quarter

Private sector life insurer ICICI Prudential Insurance reported a net loss of Rs 186 crore in the April-June quarter of FY22 against a net profit of Rs 288 crore in the year-ago period.
 
This was due to higher claims and benefits outgo and provisions set aside for Covid-related claims. The insurer is carrying a provision of Rs 488.29 crore on its books for Covid-related claims.
 
It reported a 19 per cent growth in net premiums earned at Rs 6,602 crore in Q1 of FY22. However, its investment income was down 27 per cent to Rs 9,609 crore in the same period.

 

Claims and benefits paid by the insurer in the reporting quarter more than doubled in Q1 of FY22 to Rs 5,668 crore over the year-ago period, primarily due to an increase in surrenders and death claims.
 
The insurer saw Rs 500 crore of Covid-related death claims in the April-June quarter. But, sequentially, claims and benefits paid by the insurer was down 32 per cent.
 
Its value of new business (VNB) was up 78 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 358 crore in Q1 of FY22 from Rs 201 crore in Q1 of FY21. VNB margins for the reporting quarter stood at 29.4 per cent against 24.4 per cent.

 
“With this strong growth momentum along with our well-diversified product and distribution mix, we believe we are well positioned to achieve our stated objective of doubling our FY19 VNB by FY23,” said N S Kannan, managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO), ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.
 
The annualised premium equivalent (APE) of the insurer rose 48 per cent to Rs 1,219 crore in Q1 of FY22 compared to Rs 823 crore in the year-ago period.
 
Its persistency ratio, which is the proportion of policyholders who continue to pay their renewal premium, improved to 87.6 per cent in Q1 of FY22 from 84.1 per cent for the same period last year.

 
Assets under management increased by 31.3 per cent to Rs 2.23 trillion at the end of the April-June quarter.