ICICI Pru posts 3% rise in Q3 net profit

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance on Tuesday reported a net profit of Rs 450 crore, a rise of 3.3% for the quarter ended on December 31, as against Rs 435.5 crore during the same period last year. 

As per the release, the company's new business Annualised Premium Equivalent (APE) increased by 46.5% to Rs 1845 crore in Q3FY17 from Rs 1259 crore in Q3FY16. 

Commenting on the performance, Sandeep Batra, Executive Director ICICI Prudential Life, said “This quarter was significant for the financial sector. Demonetization has not only enabled the country to head towards less cash but also facilitate a shift from physical to financial savings. We leveraged our digital platform to completely stop accepting cash payments at our branches since August 2015.

"Our strategy of focusing on increasing margin through higher protection business yielded an increase in VNB margin to 9.4% for nine months ended December 31, 2017 from 8% for fiscal 2016 on the back of 122.1% growth of protection mix," Batra added.  

As at December 31,2016, the total assets under management of the company was Rs 1,136.11 billion which makes it one of the largest fund managers in India.