by Suman Gupta
The Total Premium collected for the fiscal 2022-23 grew 16.67% to Rs 2.32 trillion from Rs 1.99 trillion. In terms of the sheer volumes, no other company can be compared to the Insurance giant that has propagated the growth of the Insurance Industry in the country. In terms of premium collected, it continues to hold a market share of 62.58% as on March 2023.
According to the Life Insurance Council data, private insurers have also collected a considerable amount of premium in March due to last-minute customer rush to benefit ahead of the April 1 withdrawal of tax exemptions for non-linked policies.
LIC’s premium growth for the fiscal 2023 is the second highest among its listed peers, with HDFC Life leading with 18.83%, SBI Life at 16.22% and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company at 12.55%.
In FY 23 while the Insurance giants, Individual Single Premium grew 3.30% and Individual Non-Single Premium grew 10%, its Group Single Premium grew 21.76% to Rs 1,67,235 crore from Rs 1,37,350.36 crore.
For the month of March 2023, LICs premium for Individual category exceeds Rs 10,000 cr, the highest amongst all life insurance companies, followed by HDFC Life, SBI Life and Tata AIA Life gathering Rs 2,989.17 cr, Rs 2,318.77 cr, Rs 1,884.41 cr respectively
In the Individual Non-Single Premium segment it grew 10.49% from Rs 5,501.12 cr in March 2022 to Rs 6,077.97 cr in March 2023.
According to a report published in January by Kotak Institutional Equities, listed insurers are expected to deliver a 15–60 per cent growth in their value of new business for Q4 FY23 due to improvement in term business, nonpar business, and better operating leverage.
Broking firm Motilal Oswal in its February 2023 report initiated a “buy” call on the LIC share with a target price of Rs 830 per share post their 3QFY23 Results update and basis Sep’FY24E of 0.8 times Enterprise Value. It cites a gradual diversification of product/channel mix being underway and it having all the levers in place to maintain its leadership position.
