Private insurance companies clocked rapid growth in January. A key metric – the individual annualised premium equivalent (APE), for private firms rose 20% year-on-year (y-o-y) in January from 11.4% in December.
The individual APE for HDFC Life, ICICI Prudential Life and SBI Life Insurance grew by 17.3%, 22.3% and 17.4% y-o-y, respectively, while Max Life Insurance’s APE saw exponential growth of 51.1% y-o-y, led by a strong pick-up in Axis Bank volumes.
Among the new entrants, Bajaj Allianz and Tata AIA Life Insurance Co continued to garner market share with individual APE growth of 31.6% and 18.1% y-o-y, respectively, according to data compiled by Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities.
On the other hand, public-sector company Life Insurance Corporation of India saw weak growth of 6.6% y-o-y in individual APE. Consequently, overall industry individual APE grew by 15.1% y-o-y. Analysts at Nirmal Bang expect strong growth in ULIP, retail protection and annuity plans to drive demand for private insurers in Q4FY24.