ICICI Prudential surges 10% on strong performance in March quarter

The company posted a 23 per cent year-on-year growth in new business premium during the January-March quarter (Q4FY21), led by steady traction in both regular and single premium business

Shares of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company (ICICI Pru) surged 10 per cent to Rs 495 on the BSE in intra-day trade on Tuesday after the company posted a 23 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth in new business premium during the January-March quarter (Q4FY21), led by steady traction in both regular and single premium business.

New business annualised premium equivalent (APE) grew 27 per cent YoY in Q4FY21 to Rs 2,509 crore on the back of 108 per cent YoY growth in March 2021 to Rs 1,101 crore. Assets under Management (AUM) stood at Rs 2.14 trillion as of March 31, 2021, a growth of 40 per cent over March 31, 2020. This is an outcome of the growth in new business, strong persistency and robust fund management, ICICI Pru said in a press release.

The Value of New Business (VNB) for the quarter grew by 26 per cent YoY to Rs 591 crore. VNB margin moderated to 23.6 per cent in Q4 (25.1 per cent in FY21), led by moderation in protection mix.

Brokerage firm Motilal Oswal Securities estimates ICICI Pru to deliver around 25 per cent CAGR in VNB over FY21- 23E, led by robust premium growth, buoyed by new partnerships and product segments, enabling operating RoEV of around 15 per cent over FY21-23E.

“Annuity/non-linked savings segments are likely to see healthy growth and should help drive premium growth. We expect the ULIP business to revive gradually owing to a benign base and the addition of new banca partners. Persistency trends have improved across cohorts/products. We expect a further recovery in coming quarters as the mix of protection/mon-linked savings continues to improve, both of which have a higher persistency rate,” the brokerage firm said in the results update.

At 09:41 am, the stock was trading 8 per cent higher at Rs 488 on the BSE as compared to a 0.74 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. The trading volumes on the counter jumped over three-fold with a combined 5.95 million equity shares having changed hands on the NSE and BSE so far.