ICICI Lombard shares surge 7% on 22% rise in Q3 profit

Shares of ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company surged as high as 7% on Wednesday after the company recorded a 22.4% rise in its net profit for the October-December quarter of 2023-24.

Shares of the general insurance company opened a gap up and surged to an intra-day high of ₹1,475 on the BSE, which is around a 6.8% increase from the previous day's close.

At the current share price of ₹1,462.55, the ICICI Lombard stock is trading just 1.8% below the 52-week high of ₹1,491.95 touched on December 1, 2023. The company's m-cap stands at ₹72,035.99 crore.

The ICICI Lombard share has given a 4.50% return in the past week; 0.64% in the past month; 7.87% in the past six months; 1.42% in the year-to-date period; and 16.59% in the past year.

The company’s profit after tax (PAT) for Q3 FY24 grew by 22.4% to ₹431 crore from ₹353 crore in the year-ago period.

The GDPI (gross direct premium income) of the company was at ₹6,230 crore in Q3 FY2024 against ₹5,493 crore in Q3 FY2023, which is a growth of 13.4%.

The company says its growth in this quarter was higher than industry growth of 12.3%. “Excluding crop and mass health, GDPI growth of the Company was at 12.0%, which was higher than the industry growth of 11.3% in Q3 FY2024.”

ICICI Lombard’s combined ratio stood at 103.6% in Q3 FY2024 as against 104.4% in the year-ago period. Excluding the impact of CAT losses of ₹54 crore in Q3 FY2024, the combined ratio was 102.3%.

The return on average equity (ROAE) was 15.3% in the said quarter compared to 14.3% in Q3 FY2023.

Its solvency ratio was 2.57x on December 31, 2023, against 2.59x on September 30, 2023, and higher than the minimum regulatory requirement of 1.50x. The solvency ratio was 2.51x on March 31, 2023.

For the nine months ending December 2023, the company’s GDPI stood at ₹18,703 crore compared to ₹16,048 crore in the same period last year, a growth of 16.5%.

“Excluding crop and mass health, GDPI growth of the Company was at 15.6%, which was higher than the industry growth of 15.2% in 9M FY2024,” says the company.

Consequently, PAT for the April-December period grew 8.3% to ₹1,399 crore in 9M FY2024 as against ₹1,292 crore in the same period the previous year.

ICICI Lombard claims to have issued over 32.7 million policies, settled 3.6 million claims and has a gross written premium (GWP) of ₹21,772 crore for the year ended March 31, 2023. Its network of branches stands at 305 and its employee strength at 12,865 as of March 31, 2023.