ICICI Lombard Q2 Results: Profit Falls, But Beats Estimates

ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co.'s second quarter profit fell, but surpassed analysts' estimates.

The general insurer's profit decreased 2% year-on-year to Rs 577 crore over the quarter ended September, it said in an exchange filing on Wednesday. That compares with the Rs 486 crore consensus estimate of analysts tracked by Bloomberg. Sequentially, it surged 48%.

Excluding the reversal of tax provision in Q2 2023, after-tax profit rose around 25% in Q2 FY24.

The net premium earned for the quarter was up 12% at Rs 4,306 crore.

ICICI Lombard Q2 FY24 Key Highlights (YoY)

• Revenue rose 12% to Rs 5,049 crore, as against an estimate of Rs 4,359 crore.

• Operating profit increased 17% to Rs 597 crore.

• The margin stood at 11.8% versus 11.3%.

• Operating profit in the fire segment fell 26%, while profit from the motor segment was up 40% to Rs 488 crore. Loss in the health retail segment narrowed by 65%, while the group and corporate segment reported a loss of Rs 39 crore, against a profit of around Rs 10 crore a year ago.

• Crop insurance reported a profit of Rs 15 crore, against a profit of around Rs 2 crore a year ago.

• The solvency ratio stood at 2.59 times versus 2.47 times as of September last year. This is higher than the minimum regulatory requirement of 1.50 times.

• The combined ratio, calculated by adding incurred loss and expenses and dividing them by the premium earned, improved to 103.9% from 105.1% in Q2 last year.

• The expense of management to net written premium ratio stood at 41.06% versus 39.10%. On a gross premium basis, it was at 28.6% for the quarter.

• Claim ratio is 70.7% versus 72.8%.

• The return on average equity fell to 21.1%, as compared with 24.5% last year.

The company declared an interim dividend of Rs 5 per share.

Shares of ICICI Lombard closed 0.11% lower at Rs 1,358.25 apiece on the BSE, as compared with a 0.83% decline in the benchmark Sensex, before the results were announced on Wednesday.