Life insurers thrive on group cover in Oct as retail APE lags

Mumbai: Life insurance companies' new business premium jumped 26% year-on-year to ₹42,914 crore in October from ₹34,007 crore in the same month last year, driven by strong growth in group insurance business, provisional data released by the Life Insurance Council showed.

However, retail annualised premium equivalent (APE) of life insurers rose 5.2% year-on-year to an estimated ₹9,753 crore in October, though sales of individual policies declined 3.7%, pointing to modest growth in the industry's retail business.

Private insurers reported retail APE of ₹6,867 crore, up 5.4% from a year earlier, while Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) recorded 4.8% growth to ₹2,886 crore. Retail APE is calculated as 10% of individual single premiums plus individual non-single premium.


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Among listed life insurers, HDFC Life outperformed its peers. LIC reported the retail APE of ₹2,886 crore in October, up 4.8% year-on-year, followed by SBI Life at ₹1,681 crore, down 0.9%, HDFC Life at ₹1,067 crore, up 16%, and ICICI Prudential Life at ₹599 crore, slightly lower than ₹601 crore a year earlier.

The number of individual policies sold by the industry fell to 18.80 lakh in October from 19.52 lakh a year earlier. Private insurers recorded a marginal increase in policy sales, while LIC saw a decline.

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An industry leader said protection products were increasingly contributing to policy growth, although it was too early to conclude whether the recent improvement in unit-linked insurance plan (ULIP) sales marked a sustained revival.