Key observations
± With the revival in the equity markets, the life insurance industry also witnessed a sustained growth for the third time in a row. Both LIC and private players uniformly contributed to the industry APE growth of 59.3% yoy in December ‘09. Private players and LIC grew at 63.4% yoy and 53.7% yoy respectively. Growth among the private players was higher due to the lower base effect. On YTD basis, private players still exhibiting a weak performance and the industry APE growth, which is at 12.9%, is again led by LIC.
± Among the top private players, SBI Life witnessed highest growth for the month of December. Its APE grew by 139.1% yoy. SBI Life has also outperformed its peer and the industry on a mom basis. Its APE stood at Rs8bn in December vis-à-vis Rs3.9bn in November, up by 105%mom. ICICI Prudential Life was the next largest gainer for the month of December with APE growth of 88.8% yoy.
± In December ‘09, industry APE grew by 54.8% mom. Private players largely contributed to the industry growth, with 68.7% sequential jump in APE. Among top-10 players, SBI Life (+105.5%), Max New York (+102.7%) and Reliance Life (+98.3%) were the major gainers. However, Tata AIG (+14.1) and Met Life (+15.4%) unperformed the peers and industry.
± Among the top-10 private players, only four witnessed an APE growth on a YTD basis namely SBI Life (+24.7%), Tata AIG (+21.7%), Birla Sun Life (+14.9%) and Max New York (+2.1%). Kotak Mahindra OM Life witnessed the highest APE decline, down by 22.6% on YTD basis. It was followed by Bajaj Allainz (-17.4%) and ICICI Prudential (-16.9%).
± With 356bps increase in market share, SBI Life gained maximum on a YTD basis. Max New York Life and HDFC Standard Life were the other market share gainers over the same period. Their market share increased by 55bps and 28bps respectively in 9MFY10.