Private sector life insurer ICICI Prudential Life Insurance on Saturday reported a nearly threefold year-on-year jump in its net profit to Rs 186.88 crore in the fourth quarter last fiscal on a consolidated basis from Rs 62.51 crore in the same period previous fiscal.

The life insurance company’s net profit during the fourth quarter, however, declined 40% quarter-on-quarter from Rs 312 crore in the third quarter of 2021-22, according to a stock exchange filing.

Net premium income during January-March this year fell 4.38% y-o-y at Rs 11,358.91 crore from Rs 1,1879.28 crore from the same period last year. During the period under review, net premium income witnessed a growth of over 25% q-o-q from Rs 9,073.97 crore during October-December last year.

During the last quarter of last fiscal, the insurer’s first year premium fell 2.4% y-o-y at Rs 1,980.46 crore, while renewal premium decreased by 1.6% y-o-y at Rs 6,803.08 crore.

The company’s net profit witnessed a 20.76% year-on-year decline to Rs 759.20 crore for the financial year 2021-22 from Rs 958.16 crore for 2020-21. Net premium income, however, registered a 3.85% y-o-y increase for the last fiscal at Rs 36,321.27 crore from Rs 34,973.37 crore for the previous fiscal.

Claims and benefit payouts increased by 29.7% from Rs 22,641 crore in FY2021 to Rs 29,359 crore in FY2022, primarily on account of increase in surrenders/withdrawals and death claims. The company had Covid-19 claims (net of reinsurance) of Rs 1,017 crore, ICICI Prudential Life said in the stock exchange filing. “During FY22, annuity and protection new business premiums grew by 29% and 35% year-on-year respectively. Given that both these segments are significantly under penetrated, they offer tremendous opportunity for growth,” the insurance company said.

NS Kannan, MD & CEO, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, said despite the disruptions caused by the third wave of Covid-19, which impacted productivity in January and February, the company was able to demonstrate resilience in its operations.”

In March, we posted the best ever monthly sales by the company in any year since inception. This helped grow our VNB by 33% year-on-year to Rs 21.63 billion for FY2022 with a robust VNB (Value of new business) margin of 28.0%,” Kannan said.

The insurer’s 13th month persistency ratio improved to 85.7% for FY22 as compared to 84.8% for FY21.