Hitesh Joshi, CMD, GIC Re said,“At GIC Re, underwriting discipline remains our main anchor. We will continue to balance competitive positioning with prudent risk selection to support our cedants dependably. For our domestic portfolio, we maintain our commitment to market stability by ensuring capacity remains available during periods of broader market constraint. All these enable GIC Re to maintain resilience while supporting our partners through evolving market conditions.”
Mumbai: A spate of domestic natural catastrophe events and higher claims pushed down the net profit of state-owned reinsurer GIC Re by over 14% to Rs 2,456 crore in the second quarter of FY2026-27.
The reinsurer had reported a net profit of Rs 2,857 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year.
Despite prevailing global soft reinsurance market conditions and competitive premium rates, GIC Re recorded a 17 per cent growth in gross premium income to Rs 11,228 crore during the quarter. Overseas markets contributed nearly 20% of its total premium.
However, higher claims significantly affected its underwriting performance. Underwriting losses surged by over 150% to Rs 985 crore during Q2FY27.
The combined ratio, a key indicator of underwriting performance, deteriorated marginally to 110.23% from 109.15% in the year-ago quarter, reflecting continued pressure on the reinsurer’s core operations.
It has also transferred Rs 159 crore to CAT reserve during the quarter.
Hitesh Joshi, CMD, GIC Re said,“At GIC Re, underwriting discipline remains our main anchor. We will continue to balance competitive positioning with prudent risk selection to support our cedants dependably. Greater competitive pressures are evident in all sectors and all economies without exception and reinsurance cannot be an exception.”
“For our domestic portfolio, we maintain our commitment to market stability by ensuring capacity remains available during periods of broader market constraint. All these enable GIC Re to maintain resilience while supporting our partners through evolving market conditions,” highlighted,” Joshi.
According to him,the re/insurance industry is operating in an increasingly complex risk environment.
“Rising geopolitical risks arising from political instability, conflicts and trade disruptions is one of the significant challenges that the industry is facing. Accordingly, we at GIC Re have integrated geopolitical volatility as a key underwriting consideration along with catastrophe exposures and class specific perils in our various lines of business,” explained Joshi.
“We closely monitor the geopolitical situation and its impact beyond the respective conflict zones. Our diversified global portfolio serves as an essential buffer against localized disruptions.From our perspective, the path forward would involve greater geographical diversification, managing some of our peak catastrophe exposures, developing specialty book as also growing the life book, all with an eye on capital optimisation,” he elaborated..
GIC Re’s solvency ratio is 4.18 as on Sept 30, 2026 as compared to 3.85 as on Sept, 2025.
Total assets of the reinsurer increased by 7.46 per cent to Rs 2,13,420.24 crore as on Sept 30,2026 as compared to Rs1,98,612.62 crore as on Sept 30,2025.
Except in Fire and Crop, the reinsurer has grown rest of its portfolios during the quarter.