Grossly, the insurer’s first-year premium stood at ₹2,724.87 crore in Q3FY23 versus ₹2,115.97 crore in Q3FY22. Renewal premiums soared sharply to ₹7,187 crore versus ₹5,543.03 crore in Q3FY22. Meanwhile, the single premium zoomed to ₹4,663.17 crore against ₹4,595.75 crore in Q3FY22.
Further, in Q3FY23, the company’s solvency ratio surged to 209% from 190% in Q3 of the previous fiscal, however, marginally dipped from 210% in Q2FY23.
Vibha Padalkar, MD & CEO said “While globally, headwinds persist from an economic perspective, India appears to be relatively better positioned. Insurance as a sector continues to be a beneficiary of a relatively robust economy, stable savings trends, and favourable regulatory regimes. Against this backdrop, we continue to maintain a steady growth trajectory. In Q3, we grew by 17% in terms of Individual WRP, which is ahead of industry growth. On a YTD basis, we grew by 13% leading to a market share of 15.8% amongst private insurers. Despite intense competition, we have consistently been ranked amongst the top 3 life insurers across individual and group businesses.”
The MD highlighted that HDFC Life maintained market leadership in credit life by delivering strong growth of 52%, across nearly 300 partnerships. Whilst growth in retail protection remained tepid on a YoY basis, the company saw sequential growth of 13% in Q3.
Also, Padalkar said, “With a combination of data analytics, insights into customer profiles and calibrated risk retention, overall protection APE grew by over 20% in 9M FY23. He added, that on the retirement front, HDFC Life has steadily gained market share in the annuity business. Its annuity business in 9M FY23 grew by 22% on a received premium basis compared to a 1% growth for the industry.
For the nine months period of FY23, the insurer posted an individual APE of ₹6,874 crore versus ₹5,577 crore in 9MFY22. Total APE came in at ₹8,174 crore against ₹6,709 crore of 9MFY22. The company also recorded healthy growth in both new business premium and renewal premium to the tune of ₹18,713 crore and ₹19,194 crore in 9MFY23 compared to ₹17,075 crore and ₹14,467 crore respectively in the same period previous fiscal. The total premium is at ₹37,907 crore by end of December 31, 2022, in FY23, compared to ₹31,542 crore in the nine months of FY22.
Meanwhile, the company’s Indian embedded value scaled up massively to ₹37,702 crore in nine months of FY23, compared to ₹29,543 crore in 9MFY22. The value of new business rose to ₹2,163 crore in 9MFY23 versus ₹1,780 crore in 9MFY22.
Among other key financial ratios, in Q3FY23, the company’s new business margins were unchanged at 26.5%, while operating return on EV and total premium advanced to 17.5% and 14.7% versus 16.2%% and 12.2% in 9MFY22.
Padalkar said, “we expect individual protection to continue picking up in the coming quarters.” During the latest quarter, the company recorded strong growth in protection on the back of 52% growth in the credit protect business.
He added, “We remain enthused with the growth potential of the sector and are committed to increasing insurance penetration in a meaningful way.”
HDFC’s subsidiary, HDFC Pension Management Company’s assets under management doubled in less than 17 months to touch its ₹40,000 crore milestone. For 9MFY23, HDFC Pension has a market share of 40%, up from 37% last year, with AUM growing by 63%.
Additionally, HDFC’s other subsidiary, HDFC International has been granted the Certificate of Registration to set up a branch in GIFT City by the relevant regulator. The branch will commence business and operations upon receiving other statutory licenses and approvals.
On BSE, HDFC Life finished at ₹590.55 apiece down by 2.41%.
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