INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
MUMBAI: Private insurers led the growth in the industry in September as new business weighted retail premium (WRP) grew 16.8 per cent,
Life Insurance Corp, which has been hit by competition, has lost retail market share as this year’s loss rose to 600 basis points.
Private
players’ new business WRP growth came even as the industry reported a slower growth of 5.3 per cent
Large insurers, including Tata AIA, Birla Sunlife and Max Life led the WRP growth.
State-run Life Insurance Corp reported a decline of 6.6
per cent yearon-year in its new business WRP, adversely affected by a 40 per cent YoY decline in group WRP
LIC’s market share, thus, shrank 823 basis points month-on-month to 43.4 per cent.
For April-September, the growth for industry now stands
at 7 per cent led primarily by growth of 13 per cent for private players and 1 per cent for LIC.
The market share of the top five private
players – SBI Life, ICICI Prudential Life, HDFC Life, Max Life and Kotak Life – stands stable at ~66 per cent
However, other players like Tata AIA and, more recently, Birla SunLife are gaining healthy traction and are only slightly behind Bajaj
Allianz Life – the sixth largest insurer
“We estimate private players to report WRP growth of 16 per cent in FY19, which implies growth of 18 per cent for the residual months,”
said Motilal Oswal in a report
“Private players’ market share, thus, will likely improve to 53.7 per cent from 51 per cent in FY18.”
In the first half, listed
companies HDFC Life reported 20 per cent growth, SBI Life 10 per cent while ICICI Prudential Life reported a decline in growth to 7 per
