ICICI Pru Life gets Rs 300 cr capital

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has received capital infusion of Rs 300 crore from its promoters, ICICI Bank and Prudential plc, in the proportion of their shareholding.

ICICI Bank holds 74 stake in the life insurer and Prudential the remaining 26 per cent. ICICI Prudential Life's total equity capital has now increased to Rs 2,372 crore.

The additional capital will be used to fund the high up-front expenses required by a life insurer and meet the solvency norms as stipulated by the regulator.

It will also enable ICICI Prudential to continue driving its expansion strategy over the next year, which includes opening new branches and offices across the country as well as scaling up operations.

ICICI Prudential notched up new business premium worth Rs 987 crore in the April-June quarter, posting a quarter-on-quarter growth of 22 per cent.

This growth is very strong considering that it is coming off a base which itself has grown 152 per cent over the corresponding quarter in the previous year.

Renewal premium, one of the key indicators of long-term sustainability of the business, showed strong growth of 98 per cent. New business profit (NBP) stood at Rs 165 crore in the period.

The company wrote over 450,000 policies in the period and increased its assets to over Rs 18,400 crore.

ICICI Prudential Life increased its branch count to 683, employee strength to over 20,000 and advisor base to 235,000 in the period.

Shikha Sharma, managing director and CEO, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance said, "Our success is founded on our ability to understand and adapt to customers' needs as well as our expansion strategy that drives us to deliver our products and services to customers across the country. The past quarter has yet again seen us deliver on both parameters, thereby further strengthening both our leadership position in the market as well as in the minds of our customers."