ICICI Prudential Life Insurance was one of the few losers on the stock exchanges on a day when the markets were on a roll. On Wednesday, the share price of India's largest private life insurer was down 5.5 percent intraday to Rs 396 before recovering to trade at Rs 400, a loss of 4.32 percent from its previous close, in response to its modest performance in 2016-17.
The company's net profit rose by a marginal 1.9 percent to Rs 1,681.66 crore for 2016-17 from Rs 1,650.15 crore in the preceding fiscal, mainly due to a rise in net commission paid, from Rs 619.98 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 758.92 crore, according to its regulatory filing to the BSE.
Total net premium collection in 2016-17 stood at Rs 22,155 crore, up 16.6 percent from Rs 18,998 crore in fiscal 2016.
The increase in net profit for the March quarter (Q4) was 1.31 percent to Rs 408.24 crore from Rs in March quarter (Q4) from Rs 402.95 crore in the corresponding period last year. Net premium income rose to Rs 7,526.4 crore from Rs 6,343.2 crore in the year-ago period. Claims paid in Q4 stood at Rs 4,902 crore.
In a presentation, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance claimed that its market share (based on retail weighted premium received) rose to 12 percent in 2016-17 from 11.3 percent in 2015-16.
The company declared a dividend of Rs 3.50 per equity share, or 35 percent.
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, a joint venture between private sector lender ICICI Bank and Britain's Prudential Holdings, was listed in September last year.
Another private sector life insurance firm, SBI Life Insurance, plans to list in the current fiscal.
There are 24 life insurance companies in India, including state-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), which is the largest in terms of market share.
Key takeaways from conference call post declaration of results:
Claims settlement ratio was 96.9 percent in FY2017.
For FY2017, 57 percent of renewal premium was collected through electronic means compared to 52 percent in FY2016.
Retail renewal premium grew 18.5 percent from Rs 119.95 billion for FY2016 to Rs 142.19 billion for FY2017.
Employee productivity improved from Rs 4.61 mn for FY2016 to Rs 5.55 mn for FY2017.
