SBILIFE — earnings call

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Prepared remarks

Moderator · Conference Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the SBI Life Insurance

Thank you.

Our next question comes from the line of Supratim Datta from Jefferies.

Please go ahead.

Supratim Datta

Yes.

So thanks a lot for the opportunity.

My first question is on what are you seeing with respect to customer behavior over the last 2 months, given you have been typically a ULIP-heavy company and last 2 months we have seen pretty significant volatility in the equity markets.

Just wanted to understand how are customers reacting to that volatility?

And how is that shaping ULIP demand?

And how in this environment hence, looking into FY27, how are you thinking about the product mix and product strategy, given you have a growth aspiration of 14% like you highlighted.

So that's the first question.

Second, again, like you rightly pointed out at the start that you have been looking at changing the product mix for the last 2 years in favor of non-par products.

Just wanted to understand what is the share of protection now within SBI Bank versus 2 years back?

And what proportion of these policies overall in the SBI channel are being sourced through Yono?

If you could give us some color there, that would be very helpful?

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

Our next question comes from the line of Shreya Shivani from Nomura.

Please go ahead.

Shreya Shivani

Yes.

Thank you for the opportunity.

I had two questions.

First is on the banca channel sales in the last quarter, in the fourth quarter.

It's actually degrown Y-o-Y.

Is it to do with the fact that March may have been slower month for us.

Was it coming from that or was there any other reason?

Second question is there was a media interview by the Department of Financial Services Secretary, where he yet again raised the topic of banks should be open architecture, etcetera.

Is there anything you can share with us because obviously, it's a big part of our distribution mix and also what is our strategy on SBI Life Insurance Company Limited April 22, 2026 the distribution channel in case such a decision is finally taken by or mandated by the government?

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

Our next question comes from the line of Prayesh Jain from Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Please go ahead.

Prayesh Jain

Yes, hi.

A few questions.

Firstly, just extending the previous question.

Has there been any communication from RBI in any form about open architecture SBI Life Insurance Company Limited April 22, 2026 or in form of offering more products at the bancassurance channel because the interview kind of stated that there has been some communication or request gone to the banks to adopt an open architecture.

Second is, if I look at your cost ratio, right, from FY24 your opex was at 4.9, has gone up to 6.1.

Total was 8.9 and gone up to 10.6.

And within that main thing, I think the product mix shift possibly to a certain extent, but also you have opened more branches and the agency channel has seen a really stronger growth.

So how do you see the cost ratios moving from here on, do you think that you would be capped at 10.6 or this ratio will kind of keep moving higher?

And thirdly earlier, while you talk about a 14% kind of APE growth, what would be your thoughts on margins going ahead with VNB margins going ahead?

Those are my three questions.

Thanks.

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

Our next question is from the line of Madhukar Ladha from JPMorgan.

Please go ahead.

Madhukar Ladha

Hi.

Good evening.

Congratulations on good numbers in a sort of difficult operating environment.

So first question, in the EV walk, we see a very strong positive operating variance.

If you can quantify how much is expenses, persistency and mortality.

And if we have such a strong positive variance, then why are we strengthening our assumptions in the VNB?

So I wanted to get a better sense of why are we seeing this divergence in EV and then in VNB?

And second, sir, our solvency is now at about 190%.

We work at 180% solvency.

So in terms of capital, what are your thoughts?

Any additional need?

SBI Life Insurance Company Limited April 22, 2026 And how will you sort of bridge that gap if required?

Yes, those would be my two questions.

Thanks.

Moderator · Conference Operator

Our next question is from the line of Sanketh Godha from Avendus Spark.

Sanketh Godha

Sir, you said that our growth most likely will be in the range of 14-odd percentage for the next few years.

But if I look at your banca growth, maybe for last 3 years, it has been stuck in the range of 9 to 11-odd percentage.

So just wanted to understand if the 14% growth has to be delivered, then there should be a heavy lifting of the growth from the other channels, either agency or other relationships?

Sir, just wanted to understand if you want to give a color of that 11% trend to continue in banca and it will be largely driven by the other channels in a way to drive the growth?

That's my first question, sir.

Moderator · Conference Operator

Our next question is from the line of Shobhit Sharma from HDFC Securities Limited.

Shobhit Sharma

Congrats on a great set of numbers.

Sir, my first question is on your agency channel.

That channel has consistently grown year-on-year for the last 2, 3 years and have provided stability to your overall growth.

So what gives you the confidence?

I understand you mentioned about the new agent additions and the new opening of the branches.

So can you give us some color around these agents who have been recruited?

Are these from the industry or are these new to the insurance business?

And secondly, if you can give us some qualitative comments about the branches, which has been opened in last 2, 3 years, what is the business contributed by them?

Or if you can give some color around the contribution of these newly hired agents over the last 2, 3 years?

Moderator · Conference Operator

Our next question is from the line of Dipanjan Ghosh from Citi.

Dipanjan Ghosh

Sir, my first question on the VNB mix.

I know that you don't give the margins across channels and every channel has a different product mix.

But let's say if you were to take FY23 for the last 2 years and assume a similar product mix, channel mix, cost structure.

What would be the VNB contribution across some of these channels or some qualitative color in terms of divergence between APE mix and VNB mix across channels, at least qualitatively?

SBI Life Insurance Company Limited April 22, 2026 The second question is on the Credit Protect business for FY26. The growth seems to be a little bit on the softer side.

So going into next year I just wanted to get some color on what are the attachment rates at SBI?

Or what are the efforts that you're really undertaking to grow this business because it's a relatively high-margin business, I would assume.

And finally, the third question is on the operating release.

Now if I look at the last 10 years, ex of COVID I mean in almost all the years, you would have delivered a positive release.

So just in terms of the assumptions that you have built in the back book transition into IFRS.

And I understand you are taking the forbearance.

But does this sort of robust risk management or prudent underwriting that you would have done give you any sort of benefit relative to any other company, who should have probably taken a differentiated strategy on these assumptions?

And one question on the data keeping question, if you can break the operating variance into mortality, persistency and expense and others?

Moderator · Conference Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Neeraj Toshniwal from UBS.

Please go ahead.

Neeraj Toshniwal

Yes.

Hi, just a follow-up on the Credit Life.

This quarter, we see a big impact on the group credit.

It's largely coming from GTI.

Is the right understanding or how is the Credit Life ending quarter-on-quarter and Y-o-Y this quarter?

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Nidhesh Jain from Investec.

Please go ahead.

Nidhesh Jain

Thanks for the opportunity and question is on VNB margin.

So if you look at the full year VNB margin, there is a 150 basis point impact of GST.

So that is for half year.

So does it mean that for the full year the impact would be around 300 basis points and our starting margin, let's say, on a like-to-like basis, it's 26% if the GST would have been implemented for the full year, which means that we have to show VNB margin expansion from 26% in FY27. So that is the first question?

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Harshal Mehta from Asian Market Securities.

Please go ahead.

Harshal Mehta

Thank you for the opportunity.

Two quick questions from my end.

So firstly as you know like we are in the earlier days in those IFRS.

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

Our next question is from the line of Samant Singh from Phillip Capital.

Please go ahead.

Samant Singh: · Okay. Thanks.

Yes.

Thanks for the opportunity.

I hope you can hear me.

Am I audible?

Yes, okay.

So just at the two data keeping questions.

One was on online channel growth that was very strong until 9 months, so like 45% Y-o-Y basis.

So anything on the discrete Q4 number or the full year number that will be helpful.

And the second is on attachment rate on the Credit Life portion.

So what is attachment rate on home loans?

So if you can just give two data points?

Okay.

Thanks.

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Gaurav from MLP.

Please go

Gaurav: · Understood. And sir, the next question is on the channel mix. While this year,

Yes.

Hi, sir.

Good evening and thanks for the opportunity.

Sir, the question was with regards to the cost ratio.

So if I look at the operating expense ratio has moved up from 5.3% to 6.1% in FY26 versus last year.

And you explained that this is due to GST, the impact of GST embedded in the cost now.

So is it only from September to March the cost impact that we are looking at here?

So, let's say, for FY27, given that the entire year will have GST impact.

So hypothetically, I mean, is this 6.1 million only reflective of 6 months of GST or this includes the full year impact of GST?

Sure.

So sir, if you can just quantify the deviation from 5.3% to 6.1% that we see, how much of that is attributable to GST?

And how much of that is attributable to new Labor Code, if you can just quantify that?

Okay.

Understood, sir.

Got it.

So safe to say that next year, it may go up slightly given that this only has 6 months of GST, but it won't go materially up from here.

Is that the right thing to read it?

Understood.

And sir, the next question is on the channel mix.

While this year, we saw other channels contribution share improving.

For next year also, do you expect the other channel contribution shares to improve?

And let's say, from a 2 to 3 year perspective, what would be the, let's say, SBI contribution or any target sort of you are maintaining to reduce the contribution from SBI

Understood.

So with the effect of diversification, where would you see the overall mix, let's say, ex banca and within banca maybe ex SBI?

What would be, let's say, target share of these other segments that you would want to keep?

Understood.

That’s all from my side.

Thank you.

SBI Life Insurance Company Limited April 22, 2026

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as a last question for today.

I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Amit Jhingran for closing comments.

Over to you, sir.

Amit Jhingran

Thank you, everyone, for your time and queries.

You may get in touch with our Investor Relations team in case you have any follow-up questions and we will be happy to respond to that.

Thanks again.

God bless everyone.

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you.

On behalf of SBI Life Insurance Company Limited, that concludes this conference.

Thank you all for joining us.

You may now disconnect your lines.

Safe harbour

Please note that this transcript has been slightly edited for the purpose of clarity.

Except for the historical information contained herein, statements in this release which contain words or phrases such as 'will', 'would', ‘indicating’, ‘expected to’ etc., and similar expressions or variations of such expressions may constitute 'forward-looking statements'.

These statements by the Company and its management are based only on our current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of our business, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions and are not guarantees of future performance.

Because forward- looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control, and actual results could differ materially from those presented in the forward-looking statements.

Questions and answers

“SBI Life Insurance Company Limited Q4 FY '26

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you very much.

We will now begin the question-and-answer session.

Our first question comes from the line of Avinash Singh from Emkay Global.

Please go ahead.

Avinash Singh

Congratulations on a great set of numbers.

Thanks a lot for the opportunity.

A couple of questions.

The first one, if I see persistency has done well across the cohort, barring 61st month where it has seen a drop, likely it would be coming out of some ULIP during the COVID time, the policies sold.

And possibly, that is the explanation.

But in that context, I wanted to know, is that operating assumption changes that are kind of a negative in the VNB walk.

Are they kind of leading to some bit of a reset in persistency assumptions or there are other factors behind this marginal operating changes?

So that's one.

Second, again, if I look back how kind of you have delivered over the last 10 years and you have presented in the slide, I mean, in terms of your APE market share or individual APE market share or embedded value compounding.

But if we were to look back those 10 years and break it into 5 and 5, possibly the first 5, of course, coming from a lower base, had a very, very strong growth on all parameters, including the kind of a margin expansion and all.

SBI Life Insurance Company Limited April 22, 2026 Now if we look back, when the margin is more or less stable, but expansion part is difficult.

And of course, the base of growth and everything is coming into picture, the growth is also going to be measured.

In this backdrop, if I kind of - - I were to ask, I mean, what would be your experience over the next 5 years?

Again, I'm not coming off to quarterly volatility.

But if I'm saying that, okay, what would be the number in terms of your retail APE growth or kind of where the VNB or margins will come down for the next 5 years, what would you have to say?