Mumbai:
ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, the country’s fourth largest general insuer, recorded a net profit of Rs 228 crore for the quarter ending March 2019, up 7.5 per cent over the year ago period.
For the financial year 2017-18, the general insurer saw its net profit surge by 21.8% at Rs 1,049 crore largely due to the improvement in combined ratio ‘
Gross Direct Premium Income (GDPI) of the Company increased to Rs 14,488 crore in FY2019 compared to Rs12,357 crore in FY2018, registering a growth of 17.2 percent as against industry growth of 12.9 per cent.
GDPI of the company increased to Rs 3,485 crore in Q4 FY2019 compared to Rs 2,926 crore in Q4 FY2018, registering a growth of 19.1 percent as against industry growth of 12.6 per cent, the company said in a statement.
Bhargav Dasgupta, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of ICICI Lombard General Insurance said, “As we look ahead we will continue to aim at ensuring profitable growth in the long term with prudent risk selection and conservative reserving practicing, while addressing risk management need of our customers.”
On the recent announcement by the regulator that, there will be no increase in premiums of motor third party, Dasgupta said, “We hope in some time we might get some price increase.”
Profit before tax (PBT) for Q4 FY2019 grew by 20.3 per cent to Rs 345 billion as compared to Rs 287 billion in Q4 FY2018, while PBT for Q4 FY2019 includes upfront expensing of acquisition cost related to the growth of 29.4% in GDPI (excluding crop segment) whereas the full benefit of earned premium will be realized over the policy period, said the company.
The company paid an interim dividend of Rs 2.50 per share during the year. The board of directors of the company has proposed final dividend of 3.50 per share for FY2019. The payment is subject to the approval of shareholders in the ensuing Annual General Meeting of the Company.
The overall dividend for FY2019 including proposed final dividend is 6.00 per share.
The stock of ICICI Lombard General Insurance closed at Rs 1092.20 marginally up by 0.49per cent on Bombay Stock Exchange on Thursday.
Solvency ratio of the company was 2.24 percent at March 31, 2019 as against 2.12 per cent at December 31, 2018 and higher than the minimum regulatory requirement of 1.50 per cent .