ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company conducted conference call on 18 October 2023 to discuss its financial results for the quarter ended September 2023. Bhargav Dasgupta, MD&CEO of the company addressed the call:

Highlights:

The General Insurance industry delivered a Gross Direct Premium Income (GDPI) growth of 14.9% for H1FY2024 over H1FY2023. Excluding the crop insurance, the growth is at 18.0% for the same period.

Overall, the underwriting performance worsened, with the combined ratio of the industry at 113.3% for Q1FY2024 as against 111.4% for Q1FY2023.

For Motor business, while the Combined Ratio continues to remain elevated, the Combined Ratio for the industry improved to 120.1% for Q1FY2024 as against 124.5% for Q1FY2023.

GDPI of the Company increased 18.2% to Rs 12472 crore in H1FY2024 as against Rs 10555 crore in H1FY2023.

Excluding crop, GDPI growth of the Company was at 17.6%, which was in line with the industry growth of 18.0% in Q2FY2024.

GDPI was at Rs 6086 crore in Q2FY2024 as against Rs 5185 crore in Q2FY2023, a growth of 17.4%. This growth was higher than the industry growth of 12.5%.

GDPI growth during the quarter was primarily driven by growth in the preferred segments.

In Property and Casualty lines of business, the company continued to grow at 17.2% to Rs 1476 crore in Q2FY2024, which was higher than the industry growth of 8.6%.

The company accreted market share across all the segments such as Fire, Marine, Engineering and Liability.

In Motor, growth for the quarter was 10.9% to Rs 2138 crore in Q2FY2024 as against industry growth of 13.9%, aided by robust growth of 27.6% in the new Private Car segment.

The Private Car mix stands at 51.8% for Q2FY2024.

While the competitive intensity on the Motor segment remaining elevated, the company continues focus on developing a quality portfolio based on granular data.

The company continues to rebalance its portfolio resulting in commercial vehicle (CV) mix at 22.1% and two-wheeler (TW) mix at 26.1% for Q2FY2024.

The company also continue to harness digital capabilities in building claims efficiency in Motor.

The Health segment continued to be the fastest growing segment for the industry. The company grew at 20.3% to Rs 1362 crore in Q2FY2024 as against Rs 1132 crore in Q2FY2023.

As a result of continued investments in Retail Health distribution, the company has grown in line with the industry at 18.7%, driven by growth in business sourced through retail health agency vertical of 21.7%.

The advance premium was Rs 3289 crore end September 2023, as against Rs 3217 crore end March 2023.

The agents (including Point of sale or POS) count, was 122,461 end September 2023, from around 117,149 end June 2023.

Bancassurance and Key Relationship Group grew at 24.3% this quarter.

During the quarter business sourced through Digital One team grew by 26.7%. Overall, digital focus has enabled to increase digital revenues (including IL TakeCare app) to Rs 366 crore which accounts for 6.0% of overall GDPI for the quarter.

The combined ratio was 103.7% for H1FY2024 as against 104.6% for H1FY2023. Excluding the impact of CAT losses of Rs 83 crore in H1FY2024 and Rs 28 crore in H1FY2023, the combined ratio was 102.7% and 104.2% respectively.

Combined ratio was 103.9% in Q2FY2024 as against 105.1% in Q2FY2023. Excluding the impact of CAT losses of Rs 48 crore in Q2FY2024 and Rs 28 crore in Q2FY2023, the combined ratio was 102.8% and 104.3% respectively.

The investment assets increased to Rs 45312 crore end September 2023 from Rs 44905 crore end June 2023.

Investment leverage (net of borrowings) was 4.07x end September 2023, as against 4.16x end June 2023.

Investment income was at Rs 1759 crore in H1FY2024 as against Rs 1394 crore in H1FY2023.

On a quarterly basis investment income was at Rs 936 crore in Q2FY2024 as against Rs 739 crore in Q2FY2023.

The capital gains (net of impairment on investment assets) stood at Rs 287 crore in H1FY2024 as compared to Rs 143 crore in H1FY2023.

Capital gains (net of impairment on investment assets) stood at Rs 165 crore in Q2FY2024 as compared to Rs 111 crore in Q2FY2023.

The company would continue to stay focused on driving profitable growth, sustainable value creation and safeguarding interest of policyholders at all times.