Life Insurance Corporation of India reports a 22.81% rise in profit after tax for Q1 FY27, driven by improved business mix and margins, despite a dip in market share and some weakening operating indicators.
Life Insurance Corporation of India said its first-quarter earnings for fiscal 2027 were lifted by a sharper business mix and stronger margins, even as some operating indicators softened. The state-backed insurer reported profit after tax of ₹13,492 crore, up 22.81% from a year earlier, while net value of new business margin rose 750 basis points to 22.9% and net VNB increased 61.32%, according to the company’s earnings call summary. Individual new business premium grew 14.48%, supported by gains in non-participating savings and protection products.
Management said the margin improvement reflected both product mix and assumption changes. On the call, appointed actuary and executive director Ajay Kumar Srivastava said growth in non-par savings and protection added to the result, while changes in assumptions around the risk-free rate and persistency also helped. Chief executive and managing director R. Doraiswamy said LIC expects margins to improve further over the coming quarters, with the company working towards a mid-20s level, although he flagged the risk that movements in the risk-free-rate path could affect the pace of that progress.
The quarter was not uniformly strong. LIC’s overall market share by first-year premium slipped to 60.10% from 63.51% a year earlier, while its group business share fell to 70.90% from 76.54%. The expense ratio edged up 15 basis points to 10.63%, which the company linked in part to the loss of input tax credit after the GST exemption. Bancassurance new business premium declined 8.62%, with the company blaming weak annuity and unit-linked sales on market volatility and geopolitical disruption. Persistency also weakened across the 13th, 25th and 61st months, and the agent force fell 2.73%, although LIC said it was pruning out less committed recruits while trying to improve productivity.
LIC also pointed to balance-sheet strength and digital upgrades as support for future growth. Its solvency ratio improved to 2.42 from 2.17 a year earlier, which Doraiswamy said provides room to underwrite more protection and liability business. The company said its ANANDA app, along with new My LIC and Super Sales Saathi tools, is helping agents work more efficiently. In comparison, other listed life insurers such as ICICI Prudential Life Insurance have also reported firmer protection growth and healthy solvency ratios this quarter, underlining how the sector is leaning more heavily on higher-margin protection and better capital discipline.
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