State-owned insurer LIC on Thursday reported a 20 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 12,076 crore for the second quarter ended September 2026, with the improvement in renewal and net premium collections. The country’s biggest insurer had reported a net profit of Rs 10,053 crore in the year-ago period.
Total income improved to Rs 2,62,739 crore in the latest September quarter compared to Rs 2,39,614 crore in the year-ago period, LIC said in a regulatory filing.
Its net premium income increased to Rs 1,47,018 crore in the second quarter of the current fiscal year from Rs 1,26,479 crore in the same period a year ago.
During the quarter, renewal premium moved up to Rs 68,375 crore as against Rs 64,996 crore in the same period a year ago. However, the first-year premium witnessed a slight decline to Rs 10,432 crore from Rs 10,836 crore in the corresponding period of the last fiscal.
Explaining the decline, LIC CEO and MD R Doraiswamy said ULIP investments tend to get affected when markets get subdued. Generally, ULIP buyers are impacted by market sentiment, he said, adding, however, one should be buying at every dip. Doraiswamy further said the Value of New Business (VNB) for the six months ended September 2026 was Rs 6,846 crore as compared to Rs 5,111 crore for six months ended September 2025, registering growth of 33.95 per cent.
The Net VNB margin for the six months ended September 2026 increased by 470 basis points to 22.3 per cent as compared to 17.6 per cent for the first six months of the previous fiscal. Asked if this high level of VNB margin is sustainable during the rest of the fiscal, he said that, with an increase in ticket size, which the Corporation is focussing on, there is possibility of some improvement in the third and fourth quarter.
On the IDBI Bank stake sale and its impact on the bancassurance channel, Doraiswamy said there may not be much impact as there is open architecture. Even after the stake sale, the partnership would continue under open architecture, and LIC has tied up with other banks as well. Recently, LIC tied up with RBL Bank and Yes Bank for bancassurance, and the impact would be visible in the second half of the current fiscal. The Central government and LIC hold 45.48 per cent and 49.24 per cent equity shares, respectively, in IDBI Bank.
The government on October 14 approved the sale of a 60.72 per cent stake in IDBI Bank to Canada’s Fairfax Financial Holdings for about Rs 53,000 crore (USD 5.5 billion), in what would be the largest foreign investment in an Indian bank and a major milestone in the country’s long-delayed banking privatisation drive. Fairfax will be the strategic buyer of the government’s 30.48 per cent stake, valued at about Rs 26,620 crore, and the 30.24 per cent stake held by LIC, valued at about Rs 26,440 crore.
Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa-led Fairfax will pay Rs 81 per share, higher than the benchmark fair value of Rs 75.99 determined by two independent valuation agencies. On the draft distribution framework, he said, “We at LIC are very optimistic about the positive impact of the proposed commission regulations changes announced for the insurance industry by the IRDAI during September 2026. LIC believes that most of these changes are in the best interest of customers and will lead to further accelerated growth of life insurance industry in India, he said.
“While we expand our overall profitability through diversification of product and channel mix, we are also working towards optimising costs across the entire business. We remain thankful to all our stakeholders for their continued support,” he said. During the quarter, total expenses increased to Rs 2,52,116 crore as against Rs 2,30,160 crore at the end of the corresponding period a year ago. The Indian Embedded Value (IEV) as on September 30, 2026 has been determined as Rs 7,97,378 crore as compared to Rs 8,13,230 crore as on September 30, 2025, registering a decrease of 1.95 per cent over the previous year. The Solvency Ratio increased to 2.35 as against 2.13 at the end of the second quarter of the previous fiscal.
Assets Under Management (AUM) increased to Rs 59,60,941 crore as on September 30, 2026 as compared to Rs 57,22,896 crore on September 30, 2025, registering an increase of 4.16 per cent year on year. As regards income from asset monetisation, he said there is marginally lower profit booking as compared to the same period last fiscal year due to volatile stock market conditions.