HomeFinance NewsHave given emphasis to protection business in the last few years, says ICICI Pru

Have given emphasis to protection business in the last few years, says ICICI Pru

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance on Wednesday reported a 23 percent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 261.02 crore for the January-March quarter of 2018-19. NS Kannan, MD and CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, spoke to CNBC-TV18 about the company's financial performance and growth prospects. 

Profile image

By Yash Jain  April 25, 2019, 11:09:42 AM IST (Published)

Have given emphasis to protection business in the last few years, says ICICI Pru
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance on Wednesday reported a 23 percent decline

in consolidated net profit at Rs 261.02 crore for the January-March quarter of 2018-19.

NS Kannan, MD and CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, spoke to CNBC-TV18 about the company's financial performance and growth prospects.

“For the fourth quarter, the premium has gone back to a double-digit growth, which is very satisfying from our perspective because some of the strategic steps we took in third quarter in terms of diversifying our customer base while protecting our franchise in the super-affluent customer base has helped us a lot,” Kannan told CNBC-TV18 on Thursday.

“If you look at the policy growth rate in Q4, the number of policies we sold on the saving side has gone up 19 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis. So some of the strategies, granularisation of our business and some of the strategies we had undertaken in `Q3 has panned out,” he added.

Talking about the outlook, Kannan said, “Going forward, I believe that for the industry as a whole the savings part of the business is capable of growing at the double-digit growth rate closely hugging the nominal gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate."

“If you look at the nature of the life insurance business, it is a long-term business. We do policies for example if you look at our protection policies, the average term for the policy is 30 years. We do invest a lot of money upfront in terms of expanding the business, in terms of commissions and other expenses whereas the benefits come over a period of time from those policies. As an industry, we do not have an ability to amortise the expenses over the term of the benefits which can arise out of those policies. So as a result, there is always a strain and because of which there is a suppression of the profits in the initial period while it will come over a period of time,” said Kannan.
Check out our in-depth Market Coverage, Business News & get real-time Stock Market Updates on CNBC-TV18. Also, Watch our channels CNBC-TV18, CNBC Awaaz and CNBC Bajar Live on-the-go!