ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co.'s third-quarter profit fell 29% year-on-year.

The private insurer's net profit at Rs 221.56 crore in the quarter ended December, according to its exchange filing. Sequentially, the bottom line fell by 23%.

The company earned a net premium of Rs 9,464.5 crore, a 4% increase from over a year ago. Renewal premiums and single premiums reported an increase, while the first-year premiums saw a decline over the December quarter a year ago.

ICICI Prudential Life Q3 FY23 Highlights (YoY)

• Revenue stood at Rs 17,535.1 crore, up 78% from a year ago.

• The 13th and 61st-month persistency ratios—or customer retention—by premium improved to 83.3% and 63.6% from 80.7% and 51.5%, respectively.

• Solvency ratio—that measures the extent to which assets cover commitments for future liabilities—stood at 212% from 202.2%. It's above the minimum requirement of 150%.

Management Comments

"We have maintained positive momentum in business and profitability during the nine months ended FY2023 and have registered a strong year-on-year growth of 23.2% in the Value of New Business, which stood at 17.10 billion for the the period ending 9M-FY2023," NS Kannan, managing director and chief executive officer at ICICI Prudential Life, said in a statement.

This consistent track record of healthy compounding of VNB and near doubling of the VNB margin are a result of the "transformative" diversification in products, distribution partnerships and customer segments that began in FY19, he added.

• Value of new business—present value of the future profits associated with new business written during the period—grew 23.2% to Rs 1,710 crore.

• VNB margin expanded to 32% from 27.1%.

• After-tax profits were up 1% at Rs 578.2 crore.

• The company's overall cost ratio remained elevated; it went up to 20.8% from 17.7%.

• Persistency ratios have improved across all cohorts.

• New business premium grew 10% to Rs 11,287 crore.

• Assets under management grew 6% to Rs 2.52 lakh crore.