LIC clocks Rs 16k-cr profit through equity investments in April-Dec 2016

Chairman V K Sharma expects Rs 35,000 cr in new business premium by March-end

LIC chairman V K Sharma said net profit in equity market for April-December 2016 period stands at Rs 16,000 crore.

It posted a robust growth of 12.43% in the total premium income at Rs 1.45 lakh crore for the first nine months of the current fiscal ended December 31, 2016 from Rs 1.29 lakh crore in the corresponding period a year ago.

Total assets also grew by 12.81% to Rs 24.42 lakh crore in the reporting period from Rs 21.65 trillion in the year-ago period.

The life insurance behemoth's gross total income grew 15.76% to Rs 3.37 lakh crore in the reporting period from Rs 2.91 lakh crore a year ago. The new business performance saw an impressive increase of 40.11% in first year premium during the period under review.

"Our performance is in line with our expectation. The Corporation has recorded healthy results based on its strong fundamentals and core values," newly appointed chairman Sharma told media here today.

"Trusted customers across the country have supported and enabled us to report a robust financial performance. We endeavour to drive both customer satisfaction and profitability and focus on technology to constantly improve customer experience and organisational efficiencies."

Talking about LIC's expectation from new business for the current fiscal, he said, "We hope to achieve Rs 35,000 crore from new business on the individual basis from Rs 31,000 crore which has been achieved by us so far whereas overall premium target remains unchanged by the fiscal-end."

Pension and group security business also grew by 27% in the period under observation to Rs 51,004 crore from Rs 40,118 crore a year ago. Moreover, under social security schemes, LIC has insured 5.81 crore lives.

Total policy payments amounts rose by 18.63% to Rs 1.12 trillion in the reporting period from Rs 94,576 core a year ago. In the current fiscal, the Corporation has added more than 44,000 agents to the rolls so far.

On the occasion of diamond jubilee, LIC launched a special plan, Bima Diamond. The state-run insurer has sold over 5,86,000 policies under the plan collecting over Rs 322 crore premium.

On the investment part, LIC has been subdued when it comes to investment in equities. It has made an investment of Rs 39,000 crore in equities in the reporting period, down from Rs 64,000 crore a year ago.

"So far as investment part is concerned, we are generating investing surplus and we keep on investing as per guidelines," he said, adding "this year in equity investments we are subdued, deliberately because markets have gone up very high.