LIC' s assets zoom to £41 billion

India's Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has reported a net profit of £68.3 million for the quarter ended June 2022 compared to £260,000 in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. However, it is to be noted that the numbers are not comparable as the corporation was not preparing quarterly results in earlier years. Prior to its IPO in the first quarter, the accounting policies of the corporation had changed.
 
On a sequential basis, the corporation’s net profit was down from £237.1 million for the quarter ended March 2022. The value of new business margin, which reflects the profitability of products sold during the quarter, slipped to 13.6% from 15.1%. Corporation officials said that this was largely because of a change in product mix as funded group policies had a lower margin compared to individual products. An improvement in assumptions partly offset the reduction in margin due to a change in product mix.
 
Announcing the results, LIC chairman M R Kumar said, “We are positive that growth in new business will be good, Covid has almost vanished and all our agents are back to work. We have launched a couple of non-par products and we now have more non-par products than par products”.
 
In the first quarter, the corporation made gross equity investments of £4.64 billion and sales of £1.24 billion, resulting in a net investment of £3.4 billion. The corporation’s assets under management stood at £41 billion - a 7.6% increase over £38.1 billion at the end of the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.