ICICI Prudential Net Soars 27.2%; Meets New Business Value Target By A Wide Margin

ICICI Prudential Life on Thursday reported a 27.2 per cent jump in net income at Rs 235 crore for the March quarter as it earned near record margin from the new policies sold. 
    
For the full year, the company booked a net income of Rs 811 crore, which was 7.6 per cent more than what it had earned in the previous fiscal at Rs 754 crore.
    
The bottom line was also boosted by the company achieving its stated target of doubling the value of its new business delivering Rs 2,765 crore from its FY19 level by a wide margin, which on an annualised basis grew by 27.8 per cent over FY22. 
    
The margin from its new business jumped to a robust 32 per cent in the reporting quarter, up a full 400 bps from the year-ago period.
    
"We have more than doubled the value of the new business (VNB) to Rs 2,765 crore in FY23, representing an on-year growth of 27.8 per cent. The VNB margin also expanded from 28 per cent in FY2022 to 32 per cent in FY2023.
    
"This we have achieved our stated objective of doubling the FY2019 VNB by FY2023," the outgoing chief executive and managing director NS Kannan said in a statement.
    
Last month Kannan announced his retirement from the company in June after helming the leading life insurer since June 2018. The company said Anup Bagchi from the parent bank will succeed him from June 19.
    
Kannan attributed the robust VNB growth across the four years to the successful implementation of the 4P strategy comprising premium growth, protection business growth, persistency improvement and productivity enhancement while keeping customer centricity at the core and integrating ESG into business management.
    
The annualised premium equivalent (APE), a measure of new business, grew 11.7 per cent to Rs 8,640 crore in the year, led by a combination of factors, including and widening distribution footprint coupled with the broadening of product mix. Protection APE grew 14.5 per cent to Rs 1,504 crore and the new business sum assured grew 34.7 per cent to Rs 10.4 lakh crore.
    
There was also a significant improvement in persistency across all cohorts over FY22 with the 13th-month persistency ratio improving by 90 bps to 86.6.
    
Asset under management grew 4.4 per cent on-year to Rs 2,51,191 crore and the solvency ratio stood at 208.9 per cent.
    
New business sum assured rose 43.7 per cent to Rs 10,414 crore while the annualised premium equivalent grew 11.7 per cent to 8,640 crore.