LIC Q4 profit rises 2% to ₹13,762 cr; govt to get ₹3,662 cr dividend

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) posted a 2.5% rise in its standalone net profit at ₹13,762 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, compared with ₹13,421 crore in the same period last year. Net profit for the year ended March 2024 was ₹40,676 crore as compared to ₹36,397 crore in FY23.

LIC will give a dividend of ₹3,662 crore to the government, its largest shareholder. The Government of India holds 96.5% stake in the state-run insurer or 6,10,36,22,781 shares.

The board of directors of LIC recommended a final dividend of ₹6 per share for the financial year 2023-24. Earlier, during the year an interim dividend of ₹4 was declared and paid to shareholders of the corporation. The total interim and recommended final dividend aggregates to ₹10 per share.

The state-run insurer clocked a total income of ₹250,923 crore for the fourth quarter as against ₹200,185 crore in the corresponding period last year.

In terms of market share measured by first year premium income, LIC continues to be the market leader by market share in the Indian life insurance business with an overall market share of 58.87%. For the year ended March 31, 2024, LIC had a market share of 38.44% in Individual business and 72.30% in the Group business.

The total premium income for the year ended March 2024 was ₹4.75 lakh crore as compared to ₹4.74 lakh crore for FY23. The total individual business premium for the year 2023-24 increased to ₹3.03 lakh crore from ₹2.92 lakh crore for the comparable period of previous year. The group business total premium income for the year ended March 2024 was ₹1.71 lakh crore as compared to ₹1.81 lakh crore for FY23.

A total of 2.03 crore policies were sold in the individual segment during the year ended March 31, 2024 as compared to 2.04 crore policies sold during FY23.

On an annualised premium equivalent (APE) basis, the total premium was ₹56,970 crore for the year ended March. Of this 67.46% (₹38,433 crore) was accounted for by the individual business and 32.54% (₹18,537 crore) by the group business.

The value of new business for the year ended March 31, 2024 was ₹9,583 crore as compared to ₹9,156 crore for FY23, registering a growth of 4.66%. The net value of new business margin for the year ended March 2024 increased by 60 bps to 16.80% as compared to 16.20% for FY23.

The Assets Under Management (AUM) increased to ₹51.21 lakh crore as on March 31, 2024, as compared to ₹43.97 lakh crore on FY23, registering an increase of 16.48% year on year.

“During the last year we have focused on directional changes in our product mix and enhancing margins in the business. We have more than doubled our share of Non-par business within our Individual business. Now we intend to focus our strategic interventions to maximise our market share across categories,” says Siddhartha Mohanty, chairperson, LIC.

“There are key initiatives related to distribution channel and digital transformation underway. We are confident that our employees, agents and our channel partners are fully committed to achieving these objectives. We look forward to this current year as the one in which our topline growth trajectory will be back in focus,” Mohanty adds.