LIC is all set to foray into the health insurance sector. (Image/Reuters)
Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is all set to foray into the health insurance sector with the public sector life insurance company in advanced stages of discussions on acquiring a health insurer, CEO Siddhartha Mohanty told CNBC-TV18.
He further told the news channel that LIC aims to finalise and announce the acquisition before March 31, marking its entry into the health insurance market. Siddhartha Mohanty clarified that LIC will not hold a majority stake in the company it is planning to acquire.
Earlier, data from the Life Insurance Council had shown that new business premiums of life insurance companies fell 12 per cent YoY in February to Rs 29,985.58 crore from Rs 33,913.18 crore a year ago. The drop, it had added, was led by LIC whose monthly premium declined 22 per cent to Rs 15,513.95 crore.
During the Q3 earnings call, Siddhartha Mohanty had acknowledged that new surrender value norms of IRDAI had impacted premium collections as the insurer revamped all its products and adjusted agent commissions to mitigate the effect. He had further added that collections were expected to improve in the fourth quarter.
The company had released its fiscal third quarter earnings report in February and had posted a 21 per cent year-on-year (YoY) decline in new business premium (NBP) for Q3FY25 at Rs 43,075 crore. Standalone profit for the quarter was up 17 per cent on-year at Rs 11,056 crore, compared to Rs 9,444 crore in the same period last year.