Private sector insurer HDFC Life Insurance on Thursday reported its fiscal fourth quarter profit at Rs 411.64 crore, up 13.7 per cent in comparison to Rs 361.97 crore during the same period last year, surpassing market expectations. HDFC Life was expected to report 6.1 per cent growth in profit at Rs 382.1 crore. The net premium income for the quarter ended March 31, 2024 stood at Rs 20,533.71 crore, up 5.5 per cent as against Rs 19468.60 crore during the same quarter last year.
The company board also announced a final dividend of Rs 2 per equity share of face value of Rs 10 each for the financial year 2023-24. “Record date for the purpose of ascertaining the entitlement of the shareholders to the final dividend shall be Friday, June 21, 2024. The payment of final dividend will be made on or after July 20, 2024, subject to deduction of tax at source at applicable rate,” it said in a regulatory filing.
HDFC Life Insurance’s annualised premium equivalent (APE), which is a measure of new business written by a life insurance company, dropped by 8 per cent, against market expectations which expected APE to fall by 7 per cent. The APE stood at Rs 4727 crore during Q4FY24 as compared to Rs 5162 in the year ago period.
Vibha Padalkar, MD & CEO, said “Despite the budget changes impacting high ticket sized business this year, we delivered a healthy growth of 20 per cent for Q4 after adjusting for the one-off business of Rs 1,000 crore in March 2023. Our stated aspiration of a double-digit growth for the full year was achieved with us clocking an 11 per cent growth for FY24, on a normalised basis. We achieved individual APE growth of 1 per cent on an unadjusted basis.”
HDFC Life said that the renewal collections grew by 18 per cent YoY. Further, persistency for the 13th month and 61st month was 87 per cent and 53 per cent respectively.
“FY24 has been another landmark year for product launches, fuelled by relentless innovation and a desire to help meet our customers’ evolving requirements. Click2Achieve, our first DIY non-par savings solution has been received well across channels, leading to a healthy increase in the non-par savings proportion in the last quarter,” the company said.
Value of new business stood at Rs 3,501 crore, implying a 2 year CAGR of 14 per cent. Embedded value, HDFC Life said, was at Rs 47,468 crore, with an operating return on embedded value of 17.5 per cent.
Furthermore, HDFC Life also announced that Deepak Parekh has stepped down from the role of Chairman and Non-Executive Director of the company with effect from close of business hours on April 18, 2024.
It also said that the board has unanimously approved the appointment of Keki M Mistry as the Chairman of the Board. Keki M Mistry has been associated with the company since December 2000 and is currently a Non-Executive Director on our Board.