ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co Ltd on Tuesday reported nearly 47 per cent jump in its net profit to Rs 445 crore for the second quarter ended September 30.

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The company had posted a net profit of Rs 303 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year 2020-21.

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The total income during July-September 2021 also rose to Rs 23,188 crore, compared with Rs 16,715 crore in the year-ago period, ICICI Pru Life said in a regulatory filing.

As against this, a massive Rs 500-crore net COVID-19 claims left the second-largest private-sector life insurer in the red with a Rs 186-crore net loss in the June 2021 quarter, despite it reporting good all-round numbers, including a 71 per cent growth.

At Rs 445 crore, net income for the reporting quarter grew 47 per cent from the year-ago period, its Managing Director and Chief Executive N S Kannan told PTI.

He also said this September was the best-ever month in terms of topline (revenue) growth since the inception.

He said the net income growth was driven by the growth in the value of the new business and a massive jump in investment income which jumped to Rs 13,817 crore in the quarter, from Rs 8,000 crore a year ago.

Guiding towards much better days ahead, Kannan said that from the claim side, "I can very well say that we are at the end of the tunnel as claims have been steadily declining month-on-month and it hit a low of Rs 75 crore in the final month of the quarter".

Premium earned during the September 2021 quarter rose to Rs 9,533 crore, from Rs 8,733 crore a year ago. The net premium earned stood at Rs 9,286 crore, up from Rs 8,572 crore in the year-ago quarter.

Claims/ benefits paid in the second quarter of this fiscal stood at Rs 8,022 crore, compared with Rs 4,909 crore in the year-ago period.

Profit after tax has decreased to Rs 259 crore in the first half of 2021-22, from Rs 591 crore a year ago, it said.

"Claims and benefits payouts increased by 82.4 per cent from Rs 7,504 crore in H1 FY2021 to Rs 13,690 crore in H1 FY2022, primarily on account of increase in surrender/withdrawals and death claims.

"The company had COVID-19 claims (net of reinsurance) of Rs 862 crore," it said.

The company has arguably the average shortest settlement time of just one day and a settlement ratio of 97.5 per cent.

ICICI Pru said the total claims on account of COVID-19 for April-September 2021 stood at Rs 1,879 crore. The full-year COVID-19 claims for the same in FY2021 were Rs 354 crore.

Claims net of reinsurance during the first half of the current fiscal were Rs 862 crore. It was Rs 198 crore in FY2021.

The life insurer said it has a provision of Rs 412 crore (Rs 332 crore in March 2021) held for future COVID-19 claims, including IBNR (incurred but not reported).

Kannan said the increased consumer awareness of the need for life insurance and the company's customer-centric products enabled it to grow new business by 62 per cent sequentially in the September 2021 quarter.

"Significantly, we posted our best-ever September on monthly sales for any year since inception... Our new business sum assured grew by 35 per cent year-on-year to Rs 3.37 trillion in H1 FY2022, and we continued to be the private sector leader with an overall market share of 13.2 per cent," Kannan said.

As a result, the company's absolute VNB (value of new business) grew 45 per cent year-on-year to Rs 873 crore for the first half of FY2022, he said adding that this will help in achieving the stated objective of doubling FY2019 NVB by FY2023.

"We settled all genuine claims quickly to ensure customers and their families had the required financial support in their hour of need," Kannan said.

He further said that the improvement in the pandemic situation with each passing month, increased consumer awareness on the need for life insurance and the suite of customer-centric products have enabled the company to grow new business by 62 per cent sequentially this quarter.

"Significantly, we posted our best-ever September on monthly sales for any year since inception, aided by our well-diversified product and distribution channel mix," Kannan added.

ICICI Prudential Life's stock on Tuesday closed at Rs 660.15 apiece on the BSE, down 1.95 per cent from the previous close.