Life insurers post 8.7% APE growth in December

financialexpress.com:

The life insurance sector reported a growth of 8.7% in annualised premium equivalent (APE) for December, with the private players turning in a good show with a rise of 11.4% in retail policies.

State-owned Life Insurance Corporation, however, posted a growth of just 2.1%. The number of individual policies sold by LIC fell by 9.1% year on year in December, indicating that the growth in the retail APE was driven by an increase in the ticket size of policies.

The retail growth in APE for the private sector for the nine months ended December was reasonably good at 11.3%. For LIC, it was a muted 0.2% YoY.

The 11.4% growth posted by private sector players was driven by a 7.5% increase in the number of individual policies sold. In comparison, the group APE dropped 5%, resulting in a 9.4% rise in total APE.

SBI Life delivered a very strong 19.6% jump in retail APE in December, a creditable show given it came off a high base. As a result, the company was able to expand its market share to nearly 18% for the nine-month period ended December 2023.

The performance by HDFC Life was rather muted as the company reported a 4.7% fall in retail APE.

Max Life and ICICI Prudential Life posted good numbers, clocking a retail APE growth of 15% and 12.6% YoY, respectively.

Avinash Singh, senior research analyst at Emkay Research, wrote while the performance in retail APE for the listed players, barring HDFC Life Insurance, came in better than expectations, he expects a “moderation in the premium growth” during Q4FY24. This is due to the strong growth in the year-ago period when changes in the taxation rules had resulted in bumper sales of policies.