LIC's net income jumps manifold to Rs 8,334.2 crore in December quarter

Public sector insurer LIC on Thursday reported manifold jump in net income at Rs 8,334.2 crore during the three months ended December 2022 as against Rs 235 crore a year ago.

The Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) earned Rs 1,11,787.6 crore in net premium income during the reporting quarter as against Rs 97,620.34 crore in the year-ago period, it said in a regulatory filing.

The numbers are strictly not comparable as the insurer was not a publicly traded company earlier.

LIC's income from investments rose to Rs 84,889 crore from Rs 76,574.24 crore a year ago, the filing said.

Its investments into the crisis-ridden Adani Group has been under tremendous criticism even though the value of the investment of close to Rs 36,000 crore are still in the green despite those shares losing almost 60 per cent of their value since January 25.

Meanwhile, LIC chairman M R Kumar on Thursday said the officials of the public sector insurer will soon meet top management of the Adani Group and seek clarification on the crisis being faced by the diversified conglomerate.

LIC's investment into Adani group firms' stock has come under criticism by the opposition parties as well as investors after US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations against the Gautam Adani-led group, saying its companies manage and manipulate share prices, run offshore shell companies for round-tripping and lacking in corporate governance practices.

"Though our investor team has already sought clarifications from the Adanis, our top management could contact them yet as we have been busy preparing the results. We are soon going to call them to meet us and explain. We want to understand what is happening in the market and in the group," the chairman told reporters at the earnings conference on Thursday.

"We'll be calling them in sometime soon to know how are they managing the whole crisis," Kumar added.

Kumar, however, refused to give a timeline of the meeting between LIC and Adani group officials.

Since the publication of the Hindenberg report on January 24, three days before the launch of the group's flagship Adani Enterprises' Rs 20,000 crore follow-on public offer (FPO), the value of the group companies' stocks have lost more than USD 100 billion or about 60 per cent from their January 24 value.

The FPO was fully subscribed but called off a day later by the management.