ICICI Prudential Life Q1 profit jumped 34% year-on-year to ₹302 crore. This was mainly due to lower new business strain and better investment income from shareholder funds. Last year, profit was ₹225 crore.
However, not everything went up. The company’s Annualised Premium Equivalent (APE) dropped 5% to ₹1,864 crore. This came after a 9.5% fall in savings-related APE.
But there’s good news too. The Value of New Business (VNB) stayed strong at ₹457 crore, only slightly lower than last year’s ₹472 crore. The VNB margin actually improved to 24.5% from 24%. That shows the company is earning more from new business.
Protection APE was a bright spot. It rose 15.2% to ₹409 crore. Within that, retail protection grew a strong 24.1% to ₹139 crore. ICICI Pru seems to be focusing more on protection policies now.
On the premium side, new business premium rose 6.4% to ₹4,012 crore. Total premiums grew 8.1% to ₹8,954 crore. Even renewal premium income went up 9.4% to ₹4,942 crore. That means more people are sticking with their policies.
Assets under management (AUM) also saw a rise. It now stands at ₹3.24 lakh crore, up 5.1% from last year.
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The company is also getting better at cost control. The cost-to-total premium ratio improved to 21.2% from 24%. Within savings, it dropped to 14.1% from 16.8%. That means ICICI Pru is spending less to earn more.
Solvency ratio is another win. It now stands at 212.3%, much above the 150% level required by IRDAI. The net worth rose too, reaching ₹12,553 crore from ₹11,291 crore last year.
Persistency metrics showed mixed results. 13th-month persistency (based on premium) dropped slightly to 80.8% from 85.7%. But long-term figures improved. 25th-month persistency rose to 82.5%, and 49th-month to 69.8%.
Investment income fell a bit, mainly due to weaker returns from the unit-linked portfolio. Total investment income dropped to ₹16,892 crore from ₹17,521 crore. However, non-unit-linked interest income rose slightly to ₹2,797 crore.
Total expenses also dropped. Operating expenses were down 10.1%, helped by lower advertising and sales costs. Total expenses, including commissions, fell 3.9% to ₹2,068 crore.
CEO Anup Bagchi highlighted speed and trust: over 54% of savings policies were issued on the same day, with a 99.6% claims settlement rate. Turnaround time for non-investigated claims was just 1.1 days.
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