Life Insurance Corporation of India, India’s biggest life insurer, continued to lose new business to private sector players, particularly ICICI Prudential and HDFC Standard, last financial year, according to industry numbers.
LIC managed to get 78,000 cr of first-year life-insurance premium out of a total of 113,142 cr, implying a market share of 69.2% of first-year premiums. While this looks like a neat figure, it is down from 75.4% in the previous financial year (2013-14).
The biggest gainers were ICICI Prudential and HDFC Standard life insurance. ICICI Prudential had the strongest growth in terms of first-year premiums collections.
It grossed a total of 5,333 cr, which is a 42% jump over its tally in the previous year. Hot on its heels was HDFC Standard, which saw first-year premiums grow 36.1% to 5,493 cr.
In contrast, LIC’s first-year premium collection fell 13.6% year on year.
SBI Life, the largest non-LIC insurer, is likely to be overtaken by HDFC Standard. The company was able to add only 461 cr of extra first-year premium during the year, taking its total for the year to 5,528 cr.
In comparison, HDFC Standard added 1,456 cr of first-year premium to take its total during the year to 5,493 cr.
Chart showing first-year premiums collected by life insurers (Rs Cr)
| 2014-15 | 2013-14 | Increment | |
| ICICI Prudential | 5333.3 | 3761.33 | 1571.97 |
| HDFC Standard | 5493.18 | 4037.18 | 1456 |
| SBI Life | 5528.1 | 5067.03 | 461.07 |
| DHFL Pramerica | 577.41 | 174.12 | 403.29 |
| Max Life | 2574.02 | 2261.03 | 312.99 |
| Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual | 1540.18 | 1271.81 | 268.37 |
| Birla Sunlife | 1941.55 | 1696.5 | 245.05 |
| IDBI Federal | 484.5 | 315.69 | 168.81 |
| PNB Met Life | 826.6 | 672.6 | 154 |
| Reliance Life | 2069.69 | 1933.99 | 135.7 |
| Shriram Life | 511.83 | 395.37 | 116.46 |
| Bajaj Allianz | 2702.05 | 2592.53 | 109.52 |
| Bharti Axa Life | 475.37 | 375.19 | 100.18 |
| Exide Life | 645.16 | 567.88 | 77.28 |
| Star Union Dai-Ichi | 629.93 | 562.85 | 67.08 |
| Aegon Religare | 207.5 | 147.06 | 60.44 |
| Edelweiss Tokio | 122.64 | 80.39 | 42.25 |
| Future Generali Life | 252.52 | 224.84 | 27.68 |
| Sahara Life | 38.7 | 65.09 | -26.39 |
| Aviva | 557.04 | 593.47 | -36.43 |
| Tata AIA | 313.08 | 434.24 | -121.16 |
| Canara HSBC OBC Life | 476.94 | 605.89 | -128.95 |
| IndiaFirst | 1538.73 | 1681.29 | -142.56 |