Life insurance companies saw a 35.1 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth in new premium collections, to Rs 1.26 lakh crore in the April to September (H1FY20) period.

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) saw a 41.7 percent YoY increase in first-year premiums to Rs 89,980.2 crore.

Private-sector insurers collected new premiums of Rs 35,777.9 crore in H1FY20, showing a YoY growth of 20.9 percent.

Among listed insurers, SBI Life Insurance collected first-year premiums of Rs 7,814.34 crore, showing a YoY growth of 40.3 percent. HDFC Life Insurance collected new premiums of Rs 8,007.3 crore, with a YoY growth of 27.4 percent. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance collected new premiums of Rs 5,151.7 crore, with a YoY growth of 20.5 percent. 

LIC had a market share of 71.5 percent in the April-September 2019 period with respect to the premium collected, while the private sector held 28.5 percent market share. In the same period last year, LIC’s market share was 68.2 percent.

A report by Emaky, however, said that the growth of private players was very tepid in September 2019 due to the impact of the current economic slowdown finally hurting the insurance sector with a lag.

The report said that the annualised premium equivalent (APE) of private players grew 3.8 percent YoY, supported by strong performances of Tata AIA Life, Bajaj Allianz Life and SBI Life.

APE refers to 100 percent of regular premiums and 10 percent of single premiums collected.

However, it said that  APE growth in Q2FY20 was below their expectation for HDFC Life.