SBI Life Reports 22% Rise in Quarterly Profit

Int’l Desk: SBI Life Insurance reported a solid 22 percent jump in first quarter profit on Friday, lifting net earnings to 7.25 billion rupees from 5.94 billion rupees a year earlier for the three months ended June 30. The gain came largely from firmer demand for retail policies and a sharp pickup in group insurance premiums, according to the company’s results as covered by Reuters.

Annualised premium equivalent, a key gauge of new business, rose 36 percent to 53.8 billion rupees. Group business led the surge, expanding fourfold during the period and helping push overall new sales higher. Net premium income climbed roughly 17 percent to 200.78 billion rupees, with first year premiums from new policies advancing 40 percent and renewals growing 17.4 percent.

Value of new business margin slipped to 26.2 percent from 27.4 percent a year ago, sitting near the lower end of the company’s guided range. Management attributed the dip to the heavier weight of lower margin group policies that arrived in large batches. In a post-earnings call, managing director and chief executive Amit Jhingran said the margin had bottomed out and that greater emphasis on individual policies should push it toward the upper end of the 26 to 28 percent band going forward.

Within the individual book, the share of non-participating products, which typically deliver stronger margins, rose to 49 percent from 38 percent. Reuters noted that peers such as ICICI Prudential and HDFC Life also posted premium growth in the same reporting season, though SBI Life’s APE expansion stood out. Business Standard reported similar figures, confirming net profit near 720 crore rupees and net premium income of about 20,078 crore rupees.

The results leave SBI Life, a major private player in India’s life insurance market, on a constructive footing as it balances volume growth from group schemes with a deliberate shift toward higher margin retail business. The numbers were released after the board meeting on July 24 and drawn from the company’s filings as summarised by the major financial wires.