SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd (SBILIFE) Q2FY27 Concall Transcript - Sep-2026 Qtr
Moderator: Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the SBI Life Insurance Company Q2 FY '27 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Amit Jhingran, Managing Director and CEO, SBI Life Insurance Company Limited. Thank you and over to you, sir.
Amit Jhingran (SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd): Good evening everyone. It is our privilege to welcome you to the SBI Life Insurance results update call for the period ended September 30, 2026. We sincerely appreciate your time and efforts in analyzing our performance and thank you for participating in today's earnings call. Updates on our financial results are available on our website as well as on the websites of both the stock exchanges. Along with me, Mr. Sangramjit Sarangi, President and CFO; Mr. Subhendu Bal, President and CRO; Mr. Prithesh Chaubey, President and Appointed Actuary; Mr. Sanjeev Chacko, President Business Strategy and Ms. Smitha Verma, Executive Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations are present. India's resilient economy supported by strong underlying fundamentals, rising household aspirations, and evolving customer needs provides a sound foundation for the life insurance sector's long-term growth. Given the long-term nature of life insurance, short
Amit Jhingran (SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd): Market volatility is unlikely to materially alter the sector's underlying growth drivers, although it may influence customer preferences across products. Demand for guaranteed saving products and ULIPs is expected to be shaped by customers differing needs for financial certainty and long-term market linked wealth creation. We remain well positioned to capitalize on these opportunities through customer centric solutions, our diversified product portfolio and a strong distribution network. Recent IRDAI's consultation paper on recalibrating economics of insurance distribution is a constructive step towards strengthening the insurance ecosystem with a continued focus on policyholder interests, transparency and improved customer outcomes. This is consistent with the broader direction of recent regulatory reforms, including the GST exemption, revised surrender value framework, which reinforces the importance of policyholder protection. While the final guidelines are awaited, we look forward to engaging constructively with the regulator. A balanced and sustainable distribution ecosystem remains essential for expanding insurance awareness, deepening penetration and advancing insurance for all by 2047. SBI Life's existing structure is broadly aligned with the proposed framework. Therefore, we expect limited impact. We remain confident in our ability to adapt while creating value for customers and distributors and delivering sustainable, profitable growth. During H1 FY '27, SBI Life pursued sustainable, profitable growth by strengthening distribution, expanding insurance penetration and offering customer-centric protection-led solutions across a diversified portfolio. Now let me give you some key highlights of the period ended 30th September 2026. New business premium stands at ₹202.6 billion with a growth of 10% and private market share of 20%. Individual rated new business premium stands at ₹97.2 billion with a growth of 12% and private market share of 22.6%. Gross written premium stands at ₹40 ₹484 billion with a growth of 13%. Profit after tax stood at ₹12.7 billion, registering a strong growth of 17% over the corresponding period last year. Value of new business stands at ₹32.7 billion with a growth of 19%. VoNB margin stands at 27.9%. Embedded value as on September 30, 2026 stands at ₹873.5 billion with a growth of 15%. Our assets under management stand at ₹5.3 trillion with a growth of 9% over the corresponding period last year. We will now update you on each of the key parameters in detail. Individual rated premium stands at ₹97.2 billion with a year-on-year growth of 12% while retaining our leadership position with a 22.6% private market share and 16% total market share. The company's three-year CAGR of IRP stands at 11%. Individual APE stood at ₹97.7 billion, growing by 11% year-on-year. Total new business premium is ₹202.6 billion with private market share of 20% and total market share of 8.2%. Group new business premium stands at ₹65.3 billion with contribution of 32% in new business premium and year-on-year growth of 6%. APE stands at ₹117.5 billion, registering a growth of 18%. Out of this, individual APE stands at ₹97.7 billion with a growth of 11%.
Amit Jhingran (SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd): Renewal premium grew by 15% to Rs. 281.5 billion which accounts for 58% of the gross written premium. To sum up, gross written premium stands at Rs. 484 billion with a growth of 13% over corresponding period of last year. During the period, a total of 9.78 lakh new policies were sold, covering 1.43 crore lives. The growth in sum assured reflects strong consumer confidence and increasing awareness of financial protection. Individual and group new business sum assured grew by 36% and 78% respectively year-on-year, while rider sum assured continued to expand, now accounting for 40% of individual sum assured. Let me give you detail about the product mix. The company continues to strengthen its product portfolio through focused and customer-centric initiatives. During the quarter, the company launched riders to enhance product propositions, provide comprehensive coverage, and address evolving customer protection needs. Individual APE for participating products stand at Rs. 5.1 billion with a growth of 9%. The PAR segment also witnessed a considerable growth of 40% in sum assured during the period. For the period ended September 2026, guaranteed non-PAR savings have garnered business of Rs. 24.7 billion with a growth of 27%. ULIP share is stand at Rs. 60.2 billion contributing 62% of product mix compared with 65% in H1 FY '26, reflecting a gradual shift towards non-ULIP products. Individual protection APE is at Rs. 4.3 billion with a growth of 16% as compared to the corresponding period ended September 2025. The pure protection category registered a growth of 26% on an individual APE basis, reflecting rising awareness and demand for comprehensive financial protection, while the individual sum assured in the protection segment grew by 29%. Rider attachment continued to gain momentum, reaching nearly 49% of eligible individual policies. Including riders, individual protection APE grew by 30%. Group protection APE stood at Rs. 16 billion, registering a growth of 134% over the corresponding period last year. Retirement plans assist customers in building a substantial corpus of funds to maintain the desired lifestyle and manage expenses in their golden years. Total annuity and pension new business underwritten by the company is Rs. 46.2 billion. Moving to updates on our distribution partners, with strength of more than 64,000 CIFs, the bancassurance business of SBI and RRBs contributes 50%, 53% of the total APE basis. On an individual APE basis, it stands at Rs. 59.9 billion reflecting growth of 10%. SBI branch productivity on individual APE terms stands at Rs. 5 million for the period ended September 2026. As on September 2026, agency individual APE stood at Rs. 32 billion registering a growth of 12% YoY, with average agent productivity of around Rs. 2 lakhs. The channel's product mix improved with the non-ULIP share increasing from 39% to 47% supported by a robust 50% growth in agency individual sum assured. During the period, the company added over 72,000 agents on a gross basis and opened 14 new branches. The other channels, direct, corporate agents, and other banks, brokers, online, and web aggregators grew by 67% and contributed 19% of total APE. Coming to updates on profitability, the profit after tax for the period ended 30th September 2026 stands
Amit Jhingran (SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd): ₹12.7 billion with a growth of 17%. The GST impact for the period is ₹5.3 billion. Excluding this impact, the profit after tax stands at ₹16.9 billion, a growth of 39%. Our solvency remained strong at 1.97 as against regulatory requirement of 1.50. Value of new business stands at ₹32.7 billion, reflecting 19% growth driven by both volume growth and favorable shift in product mix. We have sustained a healthy margin of 27.9% for the period ended 30th September 2026. And for the quarter, margin is 29.3%. Excluding GST impact, VoNB would have been ₹33.8 billion representing 19.4% growth with a VoNB margin of 28.8% and for the quarter at 30%. Embedded value as on September 30, 2026, stands at ₹873.5 billion with a growth of 15% over September 2025. The operating return on embedded value is 18.8%. Coming to operational efficiency, OpEx ratio stands at 6.9% and total cost ratio stands at 11.7% for the period ended September 30, 2026, as compared to 6.2% and 10.9% respectively for the corresponding period ended September 30, 2025. Excluding the GST impact, the OpEx ratio is in line with the last year and stands at 5.8%. With respect to individual regular premium persistency, we continue to record healthy improvement across key cohorts. The 13th, 25th, and 49th month persistency ratio stood at 87.6%, 78.4%, and 69.3% respectively, improving by 44, 110, and 40 basis points year on year. This consistent progress reflects the quality of our business, stronger customer engagement, and our continued focus on appropriate product offerings and long-term policyholder retention. As mentioned in my opening remarks, asset under management stand at ₹5.3 trillion as at September 30, 2026, having growth of 9%. Death claim settlement ratio stands at 99.1% for the period ended September 30, 2026. Our misselling ratio stands at 0.035%. We continued to leverage technology to simplify processes and enhance operating efficiency. Nearly all individual proposals, 99.9%, are submitted digitally, while 71% are processed through automated underwriting, supporting faster and more seamless onboarding. In conclusion, we are building scale and investing in future growth by strengthening our key channels and fostering a culture of resilience and continuous improvement. Frictionless onboarding, adopting AI-led underwriting, and autonomous workflows will help further optimize the costs, improve customer experience, and broaden access to financial protection. As technology reshapes insurance, we regard trust as a vital asset built through responsible deployment of technology, transparency, and consistent positive customer outcomes. Our focus remains on delivering high-quality, profitable new business growth with attractive investment economics, positioning us for sustainable long-term growth. Thank you all, and now we are happy to take any questions that you may have.
Moderator: Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish
Moderator: remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.
Moderator: The first question is from the line of Avinash Singh from Emkay Global. Please go ahead.
Avinash Singh (Emkay Global): Yeah, hi. Good evening, or thanks for the opportunity, or congratulations on a good set of numbers. Two question I would have. The first one is if I were to focus on IRP growth, I mean, it is close to 10-11% in the first half, and as you also highlighted, over the last three years, the CAGR has been close to 11 or so percent. Now, in a relative context, it may appear good, but in from your own inspiration and guidance, typically that where your IRP growth you want to kind of deliver around 13, 14, 15%. And also, you know, for you over the last many years, things have been pretty pretty stable. I mean, you have a very exclusive bancassurance channel, you have been investing in agency. So now, are you sort of satisfied with this growth? Or do you see certain things missing that is, I mean, mostly not properly firing? So I mean, I wanted your sort of thoughts on growth and going forward, how this is going to shape up given particularly challenging relative landscape now onwards. The second question is on you know, if I try to look at the EV walk and VNB, on the EV walk side, I mean you have a positive benefit from operating experience variance and that has been typically case for many years. But if I were to look in you know, the look at the VNB walk, still there is kind of a negative impact in operating assumption changes. So if, I mean, in reality, basis your past assumption, your experience continues to turn better, what are these kind of operating assumption changes that you have made this year that is leading to some minor, you know, negative variance in VNB margin? Thanks.
Amit Jhingran (SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd): So thank you, Avinash. Regarding IRP growth, yeah, first half we are growing at around 12%. But at the start of the financial year, we had given a guidance that we'll be growing for the year at around 14% to 15%. And we are sticking to our guidance for the entire financial year. Notwithstanding the quarter-to-quarter or month-to-month variation, we are very sure that for the financial year, we will be closing with 14% to 15%, as we had guided for. What makes us kind of satisfied with the growth is that the growth, as we had already told in our earlier commentary, will be better than the industry growth. And we are happy that we are at the same level as the industry growth has been in the first half year. So, that was regarding your question on IRP. I will ask Mr. Pritesh to tell you about the operating variance, etcetera.
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