BENGALURU : HDFC Life Insurance Co reported a 15 per cent rise in third-quarter profit on Friday, driven by higher income from premiums and its investments and said it expects to sell more policies in the next few quarters.
“Insurance as a sector continues to be a beneficiary of a relatively robust economy, stable savings trends and favourable regulatory regime,” Vibha Padalkar, managing director and chief executive, said in a statement.
Though growth in retail protection was tepid on a year-over-year basis, it rose 13 per cent sequentially, said Padalkar.
“… we expect individual protection to continue picking up in the coming quarters.”
The Mumbai-based insurer said profit rose to 3.15 billion rupees ($38.8 million) in the third quarter ended Dec. 31, from 2.74 billion rupees a year ago.
Its net premium income rose 18.6 per cent to 143.79 billion rupees, while income from investments more than doubled to 49.28 billion rupees.
HDFC Life’s total annualised premium equivalent for the nine-month period grew 21.9 per cent to 81.74 billion rupees.
In that same period, HDFC Life’s new business margins – a measure of the expected profitability of new business – grew by 26.5 per cent.
This includes the impact of its merger with Exide Life Insurance, which closed in the quarter. ($1 = 81.1240 Indian rupees)