During the first quarter this fiscal, total Annualised Premium Equivalent (APE) grew 9 per cent y-o-y to ₹3,515 crore, whereas value of new business (VNB) also witnessed a 9 per cent y-o-y growth at ₹879 crore
HDFC Life Insurance on Wednesday reported 11.46 per cent year-on-year growth in consolidated net profit at ₹611.19 crore for the first quarter of this fiscal, backed by 15 per cent y-o-y growth in net premium income during the period. The private sector life insurer had registered a net profit of ₹548.35 crore in the first quarter last fiscal.During the first quarter of this fiscal, net premium income rose 15.05 per cent year-on-year at ₹16,727.68 crore, compared to ₹14,539.42 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal, the insurer said in a stock exchange filing. The first-year premium increased 7.30 per cent y-o-y at ₹2,746.34 crore, whereas renewal premium rose 18.76 per cent y-o-y to ₹9,033.26 crore for the period under review. Single premium witnessed a 15.48 per cent y-o-y increase at ₹5,452.69 crore in Q1FY27.APE growthDuring the first quarter this fiscal, total Annualised Premium Equivalent (APE) grew 9 per cent y-o-y to ₹3,515 crore, whereas value of new business (VNB), which is the measure of profitability for a life insurance company, also witnessed a 9 per cent y-o-y growth at ₹879 crore.VNB margin for Q1FY27 stood at 25 per cent compared to 25.1 per cent for Q1FY26. The company said excluding the impact of GST, VNB margins stood at 25.6 per cent and VNB grew 11 per cent during the period under review.“New business margins stood at 25 per cent aided by better product profile, which helped absorb scale-related pressure and a GST impact of approximately 60 basis points. Residual GST impact now stands at 60 basis points, and we remain on track to fully neutralise it over the coming quarter. Going forward, while margins should improve with scale and product mix, as stated at the beginning of this year, we will continue to prioritise growth over margin expansion, and hence we expect new business margins to remain range-bound at current levels,” said Vibha Padalkar, Managing Director and CEO, HDFC Life Insurance, during the earnings call.“The 13-month persistency moderated by around 200 basis points to 84 per cent, broadly in line with our expectations and driven largely by specific cohorts and softer collections in unit-linked (ULIP) products. We view this as within our anticipated range, and we are working across customer engagement, collections and retention to drive improvement through the year. 61st month persistency improved by over 150 basis points to 65 per cent,” said Padalkar.The insurance company’s channels other than HDFC Bank collectively grew at 17 per cent in Q1FY27, led by a strong performance by its agency channel and healthy momentum across non-bank alliances. “Business through the HDFC Bank channel remains subdued this quarter, reflecting softer volumes at the overall bank level. We have worked closely with our parent, and encouragingly, our counter share within the bank improved through this quarter, and is now trending closer to where it stood at the same time last year. This is on a run rate basis,” Padalkar informed.“While it is early days, we see growth pick up as a matter of time rather than anything structural, and we expect the channel to progressively contribute to growth as the year progresses,” she added.Published on July 15, 2026
