SBILIFE — earnings call

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Prepared remarks

Moderator · Conference Operator

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

present. · The long-term outlook for the Indian life insurance industry remains

The long-term outlook for the Indian life insurance industry remains encouraging, supported by strong economic fundamentals, a favorable regulatory environment and increasing digital adoption.

Against this backdrop, SBI Life continued its growth trajectory from FY 2026 into the first quarter of FY 2027, delivering a 14% increase in Individual Rated Premium, supported by a favorable shift in product mix.

All product segments recorded growth on an Individual Rated Premium basis and all key distribution channels achieved double-digit expansion.

The increasing contribution from protection solutions and guaranteed non-par saving products reflects evolving customer preferences and our strategic focus.

Looking ahead, the company remains confident in the long-term growth potential of the life insurance sector in India and its ability to navigate the evolving landscape with a continued focus on profitable and sustainable growth.

SBI Life Insurance Company Limited July 24, 2026 Now let me give you some key highlights for the period ended 30th June 2026.

New business premium stands at INR89.1 billion with a growth of 23% and private market share of 20.5%.

Individual rated new business premium stands at INR39.7 billion with a growth of 14% and private market share of 22.2%.

Gross written premium stands at INR212.9 billion with a growth of 20%.

The company's profit after tax for the quarter stood at INR7.2 billion, registering a strong growth of 22% over the corresponding quarter of previous year.

Value of new business stands at INR14.1 billion with a growth of 29%.

VoNB margin stands at 26.2% for the period ended June 30, 2026.

Indian embedded value for the company as on June 30, 2026, stands at INR852.9 billion.

Our assets under management stands at INR5.2 trillion with a growth of 10% over the corresponding quarter last year.

Solvency ratio of 1.96 is as against the regulatory requirement of 1.5.

We will now update you on each of the key parameters in detail.

Let me start with the premium.

Individual Rated Premium stands at INR39.7 billion with a year-on-year growth of 14%, while retaining our leadership position with a 22.2% private market share and a 15.2% total market share.

The company's 3-year CAGR of Individual Rated New Business Premium stands at 14%, outpacing the industry CAGR of 13%.

Individual APE stood at INR39.9 billion, growing by 14% Y-o-Y.

Total new business premium is INR89.1 billion with private market share of 20.5% and total market share of 8.2%.

Group new business premium stands at INR32.9 billion with a contribution of 37% in new business premium and year-on-year growth of 41%.

APE stood at INR53.8 billion, registering a growth of 36% Y-o-Y.

Renewal premium grew by 17% to INR123.8 billion, which accounts for 58% of the gross written premium.

To sum up, gross written premium stands at INR212.9 billion with a growth of 20% over corresponding period last year.

During the period, a total of 4.25 lakh new policies were sold covering 8.7 million lives.

The growth in sum assured reflects strong consumer confidence and increasing awareness of financial protection.

Individual and group new business sum assured grew by 46% and 265%, respectively, year-on-year, while rider sum assured continued to expand, now accounting for 39% of individual sum assured.

The company continues to strengthen its product portfolio through focused and customer-centric initiatives.

Individual APE for participating products stands at SBI Life Insurance Company Limited July 24, 2026 INR2.4 billion with a growth of 35%.

The Par segment also witnessed a considerable growth of 81% in sum assured during the period.

For the period June 2026, guaranteed non-par savings have garnered business of INR9.7 billion with growth of 27%.

ULIP stands at INR24.5 billion, contributing 61% vis-a-vis 65% in Q1 FY 2026.

Individual protection APE is at INR1.9 billion with a growth of 18% as compared to the corresponding quarter ended June 2025.

The pure protection category registered a strong growth of 41% on Individual APE basis, reflecting rising awareness and demand for comprehensive financial protection, while the individual sum assured in the Protection segment grew by 40%.

Group protection APE stood at INR12.3 billion, registering a growth of 313% over the corresponding period of the previous year.

Retirement plans assist customers in building a substantial corpus of funds to maintain the desired lifestyle and manage expenses in their golden years.

Total annuity and pension new business underwritten by the company during the quarter is INR18.9 billion.

Moving to update on our distribution partners.

With the strength of more than 60,000 CIFs, the bancassurance business of SBI and RRBs contributes 47% to the total APE basis.

On an individual APE basis, it stands at INR24.5 billion, reflecting growth of 10%.

SBI branch productivity on Individual APE term stands at INR4.1 million for the period ended June 2026, registering a growth of 7%.

Non-ULIP product mix has shown improvement by 200 basis points over corresponding period of last year.

In the first quarter, agency individual APE stood at INR13.1 billion, registering a growth of 20% Y-o-Y with agent productivity at INR2 lakh. The channel's product mix improved with the non-ULIP share increasing from 43% to 46%, supported by a robust 63% growth in agency individual sum assured.

During the quarter, the company added over 34,000 agents on a gross basis and 11 new branches.

The other channels, the direct channel, corporate agents, other banks, brokers, online and web aggregators grew by 160% and contributed 28% of total APE.

Banks other than SBI Group are also growing at 31% on total APE basis.

Coming to profitability.

The profit after tax for the period ended 30th June 2026 stands at INR7.2 billion with a growth of 22%.

The quarter witnessed supportive market conditions, which aided investment performance and SBI Life Insurance Company Limited July 24, 2026 contributed to the overall financial outcome.

The GST impact for the quarter is INR2.3 billion.

Our solvency margin remains strong at 1.96 as against regulatory requirement of 1.50.

Value of new business stood at INR14.1 billion, reflecting 29% growth driven by both volume growth and favorable shift in product mix.

We have sustained a healthy margin of 26.2% for the quarter ended 30th June 2026.

Excluding GST impact, VoNB would have been INR14.7 billion, representing 35% growth with a VoNB margin of 27.4%.

Embedded value for the company as on June 30, 2026, stands at INR852.9 billion with a growth of 15% over June 2025.

Coming to operational efficiency, opex ratio stands at 7.7% and total cost ratio stands at 12% for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, as compared to 6.3% and 10.8%, respectively, for the corresponding period ended June 30, 2025.

With respect to persistency of individual regular premiums, 13th and 49th month persistency stands at 87.7% and 69.1%, showing an improvement of 61 and 68 basis points, respectively.

As mentioned in my opening remarks, assets under management stand at INR5.2 trillion as at June 30, 2026, having a growth of 10%.

Death claim settlement ratio stands at 98.8% for the period ended June 30, 2026.

Our misselling ratio stands at 0.02%, which is one of the lowest in the private industry, and this is achieved through our consistent approach adopted by the company to ensure right selling to the customers.

The company continues efficient usage of technology for simplification of processes with 99.9% of the individual proposals being submitted digitally.

67% of the individual proposals are processed through automated underwriting.

In conclusion, by embedding resilience and continuous improvement at the core of our culture and by strategically strengthening our key channels, we are well positioned for sustained growth.

Our unwavering commitment to delivering exceptional customer service not only deepens client relationships but also reinforces our reputation as a trusted and leading force in the market.

Thank you all and now we are happy to take any questions that you may have.

Moderator · Conference Operator

We have the first question from the line of Avinash Singh from Emkay Global.

Avinash Singh

Strong set of numbers.

The first question here, I mean, I would like to get some clarity around the VNB growth at 30% is very, very strong.

But around the SBI Life Insurance Company Limited July 24, 2026 margins, of course, there's a GST impact.

But importantly, also this time, typically, your mix, if I were to look at APE in terms of individual and group, generally, I mean, somewhere between 10%, 12% contribution has come from group typically.

But this quarter, given that, okay, very high GTI proportion, it's close to 25%.

And by nature, this GTI being in APE terms 100% of premium, the margins will certainly be lower than your overall margin.

So, in that respect, I mean, if I do some math, it suggests that despite GST hit, your individual margins or ex GTI margins have improved very, very strongly.

So can you help, I mean, provide some color on, okay, what kind of margins the GTI will contribute and where has been the overall direction of margins?

Because as per my understanding, if I were to do kind of a one-off volume of GTI, if I adjust the rest of the margins looks very, very strong.

So that's one, if you can provide some color around this.

The second, if I see the growth side in channel, I mean, agency seems to be finally firing up.

Do you expect or like now you have all the ingredients in place to kind of for agency to deliver this impressive growth over the rest of the year and maybe in coming years?

And additionally, will this kind of a shift of business mix gradually away from your core SBI to these channels have kind of any bearing on costs or margins?

Moderator · Conference Operator

We will take the next question from the line of Shreya Shivani from Nomura.

Shreya Shivani

Sir, I have 2 questions.

First is on the GST drag.

So it was about 1.1 percentage in third quarter and 1.5 percentage in fourth quarter.

Again, it's another 1.1 percentage, one would have thought that by the time you are in the third quarter dealing with GST, a little bit of that impact would have gone away as you would have revised many of your expenses, etcetera.

But it still seems to be at similar trend as of last 2 quarters.

And should we expect the next quarter again, there'll be a drag of 110 or 120 bps or so?

That's my first question.

Sir, my second question is on your other expenses.

There has been a pickup in your other expenses, even if we adjust for the GST impact.

So any color SBI Life Insurance Company Limited July 24, 2026 around this?

Is this because we are investing in the agency channel, etcetera?

I'll stop here.

Moderator · Conference Operator

We will take the next question from the line of Supratim Datta from Jefferies.

SBI Life Insurance Company Limited July 24, 2026

Supratim Datta

My first question is on the sum assured bit.

So just wanted to understand what proportion of your ULIP policies that you're selling are now having higher sum assured attached with that?

If you could give us some color on that?

What is it today and what it was 1 year back?

That would be helpful.

Two, on the GTI, the APE share that has gone up.

Just wanted to understand that is this related to a certain PSU company?

Or what is the nature of this contract?

If you could give us some color on that because it's pretty large.

So those are my 2 questions.

Moderator · Conference Operator

We will take the next question from the line of Madhukar from JP Morgan.

Madhukar

Congratulations on a good set of numbers.

So first, on the VNB margin.

And so margin has come off despite we see par, non-par, etcetera, those lines of business doing well.

So I suspect this is because of the GTI business.

Can you quantify like of this negative 0.6% that is the margin impact, right, on overall VNB, how much is it because of GTI?

And then what was the positive impact SBI Life Insurance Company Limited July 24, 2026 in the individual business?

So that will give us some color in terms of how do we think about normalized margins?

Second, individual protection growth, that seems a little bit softer.

So if I'm right, that number on an APE basis is about 16%.

That also includes the ROP.

So why are we like growing a little bit lower than competition?

That's the other question that I have.

Moderator · Conference Operator

We will take the next question from the line of Neeraj Toshniwal from UBS.

Neeraj Toshniwal

How has been the growth in credit protect given carve out GTI, if you can have that number.

And second question is on -- again on GST impact…

Moderator · Conference Operator

We will take the next question from the line of Sanketh Godha from Avendus Spark.

Sanketh Godha

Sir, in the VNB walk, you have a negative 40 bps with respect to assumption change.

So just wanted to understand what assumption change you have done, which impacted the margins by that bps?

And second, given -- I think you already answered that question, but still confirming it, that 60 bps negative impact on the product mix change despite non-par going up, par going up, ULIP coming down is largely because the onetime GTI business, what you have written is invariably lower than the company average, and that's the reason why there is a negative 60 bps. That's the right conclusion, sir?

Moderator · Conference Operator

We will take the next question from the line of Dipanjan Ghosh from Citi.

Dipanjan Ghosh

So just a few questions from my side.

First, on the other banks part, if you can break that 19% growth between ULIPs, non-linked savings and especially for the other bank segment, that would be useful.

And or in case you can give the mix for the other bank segment, that would also.

Second, you mentioned that you almost like 45% of your incremental ULIPs have some sort of riders being attached to it.

Just 2 subparts to this question.

One is, if you can mention the same number, let's say, 1 year or 2 years back?

And secondly, a clarification, do you include the rider APE as a part of your protection, like individual protection business?

Or is it like part of the ULIP or APE and then the margins for the ULIP business kind of shape accordingly?

Yes.

So those are my questions.

Moderator · Conference Operator

We will take the next question from the line of Ansuman Deb from ICICI Securities.

Ansuman Deb

So my first question is on your margins.

We have had continuously very healthy kind of a growth.

Now with growth, shouldn't we expect some kind of an improvement in margin in terms of operating leverage because we have been maintaining a very stable, very steady band of 26% to 28% kind of a VNB margin guidance.

So what are the things which limit kind of an improvement in margin because of operating leverage?

That is one.

The second question is on the environment around non-par.

How do you see the environment in non-par, especially because we have some differing views on the street?

And lastly, on the regulatory side, we have the lowest surrender, we have the lowest grievance ratios and also lowest commissions.

So overall, from a regulatory perspective, we seem to be in a position of advantage.

What will be your view on the regulatory landscape right now?

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you very much.

Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question.

I now hand the conference back to Mr. Amit Jhingran for the closing comments.

Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Amit Jhingran

So I thank everyone for their time and the queries.

You may get in touch with our Investor Relations team in case you have any other follow-up questions.

Thank you, and good day.

Moderator · Conference Operator

Thank you, members of the management.

On behalf of SBI Life Insurance Company Limited, we conclude this conference.

Thank you, everyone, for joining with us today, and you may now disconnect your lines.

Thank you.

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