Thank you. Good evening, everyone.

I am R. Doraiswamy, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, LIC of India.

I would like to welcome all of you to the results and performance update call for the quarter ended 30th June 2026. The results declared today have been uploaded, along with the press release and investor presentation, on our website, as well as the websites of both the exchanges, BSE and NSE.

Along with me on this call are three Managing Directors, Mr. Dinesh Pant, Mr.

Ratnakar Patnaik, and Mr. R.

Chander. Senior officials of the corporation present on this call are Mr.

A. K.

Srivastava, Appointed Actuary and Executive Director (Actuarial), from the actuarial team; Mr. Shatmanyu Singh Shrivastava, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director (F&A), from the finance team; Mr.

Arindam Dasgupta, Chief Investment Officer and Executive Director (Investment Front Office); Mr. S.

K. Srivastava, Executive Director (Investment Back Office), from the investment team; from the marketing team, we have Mr.

Uthup Joseph, Executive Director (Marketing and Product Development); Mr. Hemant Buch, Executive Director (Marketing), in charge of Bancassurance and Alternate Channels; and Mr.

Sethu Giridhar, Executive Director (Pension and Group Schemes). Also, we have Ms.

Vandana Sinha, Executive Director (CRM and Claims); Ms. Shobha Sulochana, Executive Director (CRM Policy Servicing); and Mr.

Sanjay Bajaj, Head (Investor Relations) on this call. Let me now present the key business, operational, and financial highlights for the quarter ended 30th June 2026.

Market share: our market share by first-year premium income for three months ending 30th June 2026 is 60.10% as per IRDAI, as compared to 63.51% for the similar period ended 30th June 2025. We continue to maintain our leadership in the Indian life insurance market across both individual and group business segments.

Now, if you bifurcate this overall market share of 60.10% into segment-wise share of individual and group business, we would have a market share of 38.89% in individual business, and 70.90% in the group business for the current quarter ending 30th June '26. On a comparable basis for the three months ending June 30th, 2025, the respective market share for individual and group business were 38.76% and 76.54% respectively.

For the quarter ended 30th June 2026, we have reported a total premium income of ₹1,27,250 crore, as compared to total premium income of ₹1,19,200 crore for the quarter ended 30th June 2025, registering a growth of 6.75% on a year-on-year basis. The individual new business premium income for quarter ended 30th June '26 was ₹14,351 crore, as compared to ₹12,536 crore for the corresponding period last year, thereby registering a growth of 14.48% on a year-on-year basis.

Further, the renewal premium income for the quarter ended 30th June '26 was ₹61,065 crore, as compared to ₹58,938 crore for the previous year first quarter, thereby registering a growth of 3.61% on year-on-year basis. Therefore, for the quarter ended 30th June '26, our total individual premium income, including renewals, was ₹75,416 crore, as compared to ₹71,474 crore for the quarter ended 30th June '25, registering a growth of 5.52% on year-on-year basis.

The group business total premium income for the quarter ended 30th June '26 was ₹51,834 crore, comprising a new business premium of ₹51,229 crore. In comparison, for the quarter ended 30th June '25, the group business total premium income was ₹47,726 crore, and comprises new business premium of ₹46,907 crore.

Therefore, for this quarter ended 30th June '26, the total group premium has increased by 8.61% as compared to the similar period of previous year. Total annualized premium equivalent for the quarter ended 30th June '26 is ₹13,692 crore, which comprised individual APE of ₹7,532 crore and group APE of ₹6,160 crore.

Therefore, on an APE basis, the individual business accounts for 55.01%, and group business accounts for 44.99%. Further, of the individual APE, the par business accounts for ₹5,085 crore, and the non-par amounts to ₹2,447 crore.

Therefore, our non-par share of individual APE is 32.49% and par is 67.51% for the quarter ended 30th June '26. As you may recall, for the quarter ended 30th June 2025, our non-par share of total individual business based on APE stood at 30.34%.

The profit after tax for the quarter ended 30th June '26 was ₹13,492 crore, as compared to ₹10,986 crore for the quarter ended 30th June '25, registering a growth of 22.81% on a year-on-year basis. The net VNB margin has improved by 750 basis points on a year-on-year basis from 15.4% for the quarter ended 30th June '25 to 22.9% for the first quarter of the current year.

Further, the net VNB has registered a growth of 61.32% on a year-on-year basis from ₹1,944 crore for the quarter ended 30th June '25 to ₹3,136 crore for the quarter ended 30th June 2026. The solvency ratio as on 30th June 2026 improved to 2.42 as against 2.17 on 30th June 2025.

Our assets under management has registered a growth of 4.1% on a year-on-year basis from ₹57,05,341.44 crore as on 30th June '25 to ₹59,39,384.39 crore as on 30th June 2026. As on June 30th, '26, we had a comprehensive suite of 59 products, excluding Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, available for new business, including 37 exclusive individual products, 13 exclusive group products, and one common product for group and individual business, seven individual riders, and one group rider.

Since April 2026, two new products have been launched, namely LIC's New Jeevan Saathi Single Premium and LIC's New Jeevan Saathi Limited Premium, and one product has been withdrawn, namely LIC's Nav Jeevan Shree Single Premium, which was a close-ended plan. During the quarter ended 30th June 2026, we sold 31,02,281 new policies, as compared to 30,39,709 new policies in the first quarter of the last year, registering an increase of 2.06% on a year-on-year basis.

As on June 30th, 2026, the total number of agents was 14,45,692, as compared to 14,86,222 as on June 30th, 2025, registering a decrease of 2.73% year-on-year basis. The market share by the number of agents as on June 30th, 2026 stands at 43.69% as against 47.11% for 30th June 2025.

On a number of policies sold basis, the agency force sold 30,55,909 policies during the quarter ended 30th June '26, as compared to 29,99,433 policies during the corresponding period last year. Further, 98.51% of our policies in the quarter ended 30th June 2026 were sold by our agency force, and seen on a premium basis, 93.07% of new business premium came from our agency channel in the quarter ended June 30th, 2026.

Bancassurance and alternate channels, including micro insurance, collected new business premium income of ₹907.14 crore for the quarter ended 30th June 2026, as compared to ₹861.92 crore for the quarter ended June 30th, 2025, registering a growth of 5.25% on a year-on-year basis. The new business premium income collected through banks was ₹483.39 crore for the quarter ended June 30th, 2026, and for the corresponding period last year, it was ₹528.97 crore, thereby registering a decrease of 8.62% on a year-on-year basis.

Further, the alternate channels collected new business premium of ₹423.75 crore for the quarter ended 30th June 2026, as compared to ₹332.94 crore for the quarter ended 30th June 2025, registering a significant growth of 27.27% on a year-on-year basis. Our bancassurance and alternate channels account for 6.34% of individual new business premium for the quarter ended 30th June 2026, as compared to 6.89% for the same period last year.

For the quarter ended 30th June 2026, the overall expense ratio was 10.63%, as compared to 10.47% for the same period last year, therefore an increase of 16 basis points in our overall expense ratio on year-on-year basis. On premium basis, the persistency for the 13th, 25th, 37th, 49th, and 61st month up to the quarter ended 30th June 2026 stands at 75.33%, 69.84%, 67.50%, 64.04%, and 61.12% respectively, as compared to 75.63%, 71.53%, 67.17%, 63.45%, and 63.85% respectively up to the quarter ended June 30th, 2025.

On a number of policies basis, the persistency for 13th, 25th, 37th, 49th, and 61st month up to the quarter ended 30th June '26 stands at 66.45%, 58.07%, 56.14%, 51.27%, and 48.74% respectively, as compared to 64.35%, 60.15%, 54.23%, 50.79%, and 51.12% respectively up to the quarter ended 30th June 2025. In our digital initiative through the agent-assisted ANANDA application, we have completed 4,36,925 policies during the quarter ended 30th June 2026, as compared to 3,47,958 policies for the period ended 30th June 2025, thereby registering a growth of 25.56% on a year-on-year basis.

There is a growth of 16.29% in the number of active agents in the application for three months ended 30th June '26 on a year-on-year basis. The launch of myLIC and Super Sales Saathi mobile applications in April 2026 marked a significant milestone in LIC's digital transformation journey.

Introduced under LIC's Digital Innovation and Value Enhancement initiative, DIVE, these applications are designed to enhance customer experience, improve operational efficiency, and strengthen digital accessibility. The myLIC app provides one-stop shop for all insurance and servicing needs of the customers and provides a comprehensive digital servicing experience.

The Super Sales Saathi app empowers LIC's agents and intermediaries with a comprehensive digital workspace by offering real-time access to customer information, commission details, business performance, renewal tracking, and intelligent sales insights. Together, these applications reduce paperwork, streamline service delivery, promote transparency, and enable faster technology-driven interactions between LIC, its customers, and its sales force.

This initiative reflects LIC's commitment to becoming a modern, customer-centric, and digitally enabled insurance organization while supporting India's broader vision of digital financial inclusion. On the individual claim front, during the quarter ended 30th June 2026, we have processed 37,27,812 number of claims, which includes 35,35,876 claims due to maturity and survival benefits.

On the amount basis, during the first quarter ended 30th June 2026, the total maturity claims were ₹57,099 crore, and the total death claims were ₹5,934 crore. On a comparable basis for quarter ended 30th June 2025, the maturity claims were ₹50,584 crore, and death claims were ₹5,877 crore.

Therefore, the maturity claims are higher by 12.88%, and the death claims are higher by 0.97% on a year-on-year basis. On number of claims basis, the maturity claims have decreased by 10.94%, and the death claims have decreased by 3.09% on a year-on-year basis.

As of June 2030 June 30th, 2026, a total of 2.87 lakh women have been designated as Bima Sakhis, successfully selling 4.52 lakh insurance policies and generating a new business premium income of ₹656.91 crore. Our objective is to appoint at least one Bima Sakhi in every gram panchayat, and we would like to inform that out of 2,44,876 gram panchayats in India, we have covered 62% gram panchayats by recruiting Bima Sakhis in 1,51,620 gram panchayats up to 30th June 2026.

Before concluding, I would like to highlight significant achievements during the first quarter of 2026-27: New business premium income of individual business has grown by 14.48% year-on-year basis to ₹14,351 crore for the quarter ended June 30th, 2026. The profit after tax has grown by 22.81% to ₹13,492 crore on a year-on-year basis.

VNB has increased by 61.32% on a year-on-year basis for the quarter ended 30th June 2026. VNB margin has increased by 750 basis points to 22.9% for the quarter ended 30th June 2026.

AUM has increased to ₹59,39,384.39 lakh crore, registering a growth of 4.10% on a year-on-year basis. The total APE has grown by 8.22% to ₹13,692 crore on a year-on-year basis.

Our non-par share of individual APE has grown to 32.49% for the quarter ended 30th June '26, as compared to 30.34% in the same period for the previous year. The bancassurance and alternate channels registered a growth of 5.25% on a year-on-year basis to ₹907.14 crore.

Our solvency has increased from 2.17 last year at the end of first quarter to 2.42 for the quarter ended 30th June 2026. Before I close, I would like to mention that recently the Government of India has sold 6.5% stake in LIC via an offer for sale, which has been well received by the market.

With this 6.5% OFS, our public float rises to 10%, and we are now compliant with the currently applicable minimum public shareholding norms. I want to welcome the new shareholders through the OFS into LIC's shareholder family, and also thank the existing shareholders who have participated in the OFS for their continued faith in LIC.

This year on the 1st of September 2026, LIC shall complete 70 years of existence, and we hope to bring many occasions of joy to our customers through innovative product launches and other initiatives. We sincerely thank all our stakeholders for their continued confidence in our strategy and its execution.

I now hand over the call to the moderator to begin the question-and-answer session. Thank you so much.

Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations on a great set of numbers.

Three questions from my side. If you could highlight what are the assumption changes in the VNB walk that you have provided, and also the cost impact, is this GST exclusion led, or anything else to read into that?

That is one question. Second is our ULIP reduced basically year-on-year basis.

Is this a deliberate decision, or was it a function of the markets, and we should see some recovery back in ULIP in 2Q, or if you could highlight the trends of ULIP sales in 2Q so far, that would be helpful. Thirdly, sir, also wanted to understand what is the reason for the difference between the RWRP data in the IRDA monthly release and the individual APE that we have disclosed?

If you could give some color on that so that we can understand and estimate better from the coming quarters. These are my three primary questions.

One another small thing, I just noticed that our number of agents at the urban geographies the absolute number has come off slightly, is this a conscious choice of basically focusing primarily on the rural side? These will be my questions, sir.

Thanks.

Thank you, Swarnabha. I'll come to the assumption changes.

I'll ask Appointed Actuary to explain it further after I reply to others. Yes, there has been an impact of the GST exemption on the individual lines of life insurance business.

While the GST has gone on the individual lines, the non-availability of input tax credit has had an impact on the overall expenses ratio, and this comparison with the corresponding first quarter of last year, when we had the ITC available, is something which has resulted in a 16 basis points increase in the overall expense ratio. That is one of the reasons as you mentioned.

ULIP premium reduction is naturally a function of the market scenario when confidence in the market gets affected due to the high volatility in the market functioning. Naturally, that's also one.

I will put it the other way that we have been focusing on the margin-accretive business lines, and we have shown a good growth, as you would have seen, in both non-par savings as well as non-par protection. ULIP, we do expect to come back when the market situation normalizes.

Then the difference in RWP and APE, yes, they are two they have two different components. APE does not take into account the actual first-year premium received subsequent to the new business completion, whereas it takes into account the new business premium received where the premium is multiplied by the frequency to arrive at the annualized premium equivalent.

APE and WRP cannot be equal. We have a substantial growth in the first-year renewal premium.

The premium that comes out of the policy sold in the previous year is a component, so that difference has to be accounted for. On the agents front, yes, the number of agents reduction has been because of a good number of candidates who have taken up Bima Sakhi without fully understanding the requirement.

Some of them who had taken up just thinking that it's going to be a stipendiary position without having the need to perform after having realized that they had to perform, had quit. We have a focus on weeding out non-serious candidates from the agency force, and that is something which will continue to happen.

On the rural front, yes, we are able to register a good growth. There we have this thing, and on the urban front, we are trying to get back to the number of agents and retain the numbers as efficiently as possible.

Appointed Actuary can talk about the assumption changes in VNB walk.

Good afternoon. I am Ajay Kumar Srivastava, Appointed Actuary and Executive Director (Actuarial).

VNB margin as at 30th June 2026 was 15.4%, which as at 30th June 2026 is 22.9%. The significant impact is of business mix, where we have shown a significant growth in individual non-par savings particularly to the extent of 59.24%, and the protection business growth is around 43.59%.

This, along with if you recall in our earlier meetings, that we had in the year 2024 come out with products with higher ticket size. Those also have impacted the business mix and the business growth, which I have just told you.

These two have contributed to 6.45% positively to the VNB growth. As regards assumptions, we have shown 2.9% positive growth on this, which is the combined impact of RFR during the year, and the experience on persistency on both individual and group has been aligned with the current experience, and also across the durations where we see the variations in persistency differ.

Those have been aligned, and apart from that, there are other deductions such as CRNHR, dewog, etc. All these put together, they have contributed to 2.9% positively.

Expense assumptions along with the impact of input tax credit, that has contributed to a negative of -1.9%. If you add to all those things, that worked out to be 22.9% as at end of 30th June 2026.

I hope I have answered.

Thank you, sir, for those detailed responses. If I may ask a couple of follow-ups.

One was that, sir, this coming quarter, if ULIP has come back, should we expect that non-par run rate would continue in a similar step-up like we have seen in 1Q, or is there a possibility that ULIP can cannibalize some of the volume which was absent this quarter? Second is, sir, in this operating assumption changes and the GST impact, how much will continue over subsequent quarters, and how much will be normalized?

If you could give some sense, that would be helpful. Thank you.

See,

the ULIP coming back in Q2 is something which will depend on the market improvement also. That may not cannibalize.

See, the growth in total APE itself was slightly muted because of ULIP not having been showing the growth that we were showing in the previous quarters. I don't think any cannibalization is going to happen.

We would like to see that the non-par growth continues the way it has been growing from Q1 to Q4 over the previous years, that will continue in the current year as well. The impact of expense, as I said, there are two things of it.

One, the input tax credit loss, which is also taken as a part of expense, and the impact is inclusive of that.

The second important thing is the increase in volume of business because of the removal of GST on premium itself. We have seen the traction now getting for increase in the volume and the combined effect of the expense rationalization and the GST input loss credit, that has impacted -2% with regard to assumptions.

Right, sir. Would we think that this -2% will continue for say next one, two quarters, or would it come off or normalize?

Once the assumption change has been incorporated, I don't think it should have much of an impact in the subsequent quarters. Of course, when you compare quarter-to-quarter also, last year quarter three, the change has already started having its impact.

If at all, it's a comparison between current year and last year, Q1 and Q2 will be compared with no GST ITC for the current year vis-a-vis ITC available last year. That will be for Q1 and Q2.

Q1 is already over.

Understood, sir. Understood.

Very clear. Thank you so much, and all the best for FY '27.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

hi, everyone. Thanks for the opportunity.

My, the first question is again, on the VNB walk that you have given. Just wanted to understand that, the mix improvement and, the impact from mix improvement that we have seen, is the in, the individual or, the products at the individual level also seeing an increase in margin because of the yield movement?

Is is is there a positive impact from, the product-level margins because of that? That's one.

Secondly, on the 290 basis point, assumption in positive impact that you called out, and you said that, RFR and persistency has contributed to that, just wanted to understand what proportion would be RFR and persistency? Is persistency a positive impact?

Just, just if you could clarify that. That's the second bit.

Then moving to the unwind part, just wanted to understand what is the, equity return and the debt return that you're building, in unwind this year for for this year? What proportion of the unwind is typically related to equity and debt, if you if you could clarify that as well?

That would be helpful. Lastly, on the IDBI stake, just wanted to understand where does this IDBI stake really sit?

Does it sit in the policyholders' accounts or the shareholders' account? Those are my four questions.

Thank you.

I will start from the IDBI stake. It has already been clarified quite a number of times that LIC had a unified fund before the IPO, and IDBI investment was before that, and hence it continues to be in policyholders' funds awaiting the stake sale.

That is as of things as it stands today. VNB walk, I think, I'll request Actuary to take it further.

With regard to the margins that you said in par business and otherwise non-par business actually so both has contributed positively. The contribution is more positive with regard to individual non-par business, particularly with individual non-par savings, and the term assurance.

With regard to par also, it is positive, but lower than that. The group line of business also has contributed positively to the VNB margin.

That's with regard to the lines of business. On assumptions, RFR the impact, if I can separately give it to you, is a positive contribution to the extent of 5% plus.

In case of withdrawal, because the withdrawal experience in different places have been corrected in the assumptions, the impact is negative to that extent. There are interactions in assumptions which we take, the direction which we take.

A combined effect of all these things have been shown in one place, which is 2.9% positive.

Sir, on unwind, there was a question on the unwind state as well, if you could clarify that.

As of today, we are not disclosing the EV value. However, the unwind rate will be based on the assumptions that we expect to have as on 31st March 2027.

We will disclose EV on a half-yearly basis, and while we do so, the analysis of movement is covered on an annual basis.

Okay. Okay.

Just one clarification, sir

It will be at the same level as last year.

Okay.

Yeah.

If you look at March 2026 IEV, the unwind which was given at that time in the IEV walk was ₹7,748 crore. That's what it was provided at that time.

Now, because there is no separate calculation of IEV at the end of this quarter, and therefore, no numbers have been provided at this stage.

Okay. Okay.

Sir, just one clarification on the par, non-par, and group you said contracts contributed positively, so that should be taken as all of the product have seen an improvement in margins, right, at the product level? Just wanted to clarify that I get that correctly.

Yes, that's correct.

Okay. Thank you.

Hi, am I audible?

Thank you for the opportunity. I actually had one request and one question.

The request is this time we've seen a big gap in terms of the weighted premium and the APE. Another insurer also has this in their report monthly APE whenever LI Council numbers come.

I think this will give investors confidence in monthly trajectory. That is a request.

The question is essentially, see, Q3, Q4 growth was good on a weak base. Q1 APE growth, and I'm restricting myself to APE, the VNB growth is good, the APE growth is soft in some shape or form, at least on a not so high base.

The second half your base also becomes unfavorable in both APE and margin expansion terms. How should one think about just cross cycle medium term, 3 years, let's say?

What is the aspiration for growth on top line, bottom line, new business?

APE and WRP, as I explained, they take a slightly different component into place. APE does not take into account the renewal premium, or the subsequent premiums after the policy gets completed during the first year, whereas the WRP takes actually what has been received.

If a monthly premium is taken as at the beginning, only 1 month premium is taken into credit, and in APE, it gets multiplied by 12. Last year we had last few quarters, we have been slowly shifting our focus, and a contribution from non-single premium or regular premium had increased in the last year, thereby the APE growth was in compared to the previous year was high.

This year we are comparing with a similar situation last year, the current first quarter APE growth has not been that high, though WRP has been good, because we have got a very good first-year renewal premium also coming in. We expect that this will get more pronounced, and this the growth in APE will also increase over the subsequent quarters as our focus on new business also increases as the year progresses on.

I I think that is something which we look at. Yes, your request we'll we'll get it we'll get it examined how best we can do that, we'll see.

As I as I go forward, I think that should not be much of an impact on the profitability, because we are focusing continuously on value-accreting policies in a bigger way, where you have seen a good growth in both non-par savings as well as non-par protection. That focus will continue.

We expect the margins to improve. Of course, the the components from the RFR is not in our hands, other components will be continuously under our focus.

We'll try to improve our efficiency in all the areas that we can do.

Got it. Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations on a great set of numbers.

Just one question on individual protection, sir. We are seeing good growth continuing, and this quarter again it is 40% plus kind of year-on-year growth that we are seeing.

If you can help us understand what channels are majorly contributing it, and while it is on a small base, but what steps have been taken, and do we expect it to continue growing further, and some sense on that will be helpful, sir.

Thank you, Gaurav. Actually, we were a very strong savings player.

Our contribution from savings used to be very high, followed by annuities, and then we started improving our performance in ULIPs. The one bucket which we were not very strong was as you said, the protection.

We wanted to have that also added, and so we are seeing a good growth in the first quarter this year over the corresponding period last year. The channel which is contributing, no doubt, because in terms of number of policies, biggest contributor is our individual agents.

Individual agents have contributed substantially in this, whereas in bancassurance, the focus is much more on annuity sales and ULIPs. There again, we will be trying to get something from the protection bucket as well.

We can confidently hope to increase this increase in protection performance to continue for some more quarters certainly, because our focus is to increase protection also as part of our business lines.

That was very helpful, sir. Thank you, and all the best, sir.

Thank you, Gaurav.

Hi, sir. [unclear].

Coming back this time again on the assumption changes, operating assumptions, in the March '26 also, there was a negative hit. It is still that impact that is going on, or in 1Q FY '27 also there are some assumption changes which is impacting this?

In the month of March, if you look at the impact of operating assumption and changes in GST that was provided was -2.8%. Now we are showing it separately.

Yeah.

Now we're showing it separately, the impact of assumptions, which constitutes all three, RFR, withdrawals, and other deductions like CRNHR, dewog, and frictional costs, etc. They're put together, they're contributing 2.9%, but as I said, impact of expense, that has come down to -1.9%, which includes the impact of loss of input tax credit.

Basically, this should kind of keep reducing with time, and probably second half of FY '27, a bulk of it should not be there, largely because, first of all, GST input tax credit should not have any implication, and unless there is some more assumption changes that we do towards the end of FY '27, this should kind of reduce going ahead. See,

as I explained earlier, the impact is two ways. One, the input tax credit, which is taken as the expense, and there is again the positive impact of growth in the volume itself.

You would appreciate that once the volume grows and it exceeds the growth in the expenses put together, the other expenses and the cost of input tax credit, the per-policy expenses, the way it goes into assumptions, will definitely reduce once the volume also increases.

Got that. Sir, and if I look at your P&L, and large part of our profits or surplus comes from the non-par book in spite of the fact that we have such a relatively smaller non-par book versus the par book.

Still the surplus comes from the non-par book, maximum of the surplus, large part of the surplus. What explains that?

No.

See, the non-par business valuation happens on a quarter-to-quarter basis, whereas the surplus emanating from par business is done only once in a year when it comes to transferring it to the shareholders. Ultimately, 90-10 share has to happen, so that happens only when the valuation gets completed at the end of the year.

You will see the impact of par business surplus only in the quarter four. First three quarters will have only the non-par surplus coming in.

Even in FY '26, if you look at the numbers, a large part of the surplus was from non-par book.

See, as the nature of business itself, par, 90% of the surplus goes to the policyholders. Only 10% gets transferred, the idea of a directional change in the proportion of business between par and non-par is started only after we went into by a public organization after the IPO.

This will contribute, and also we have the funds earmarked for available solvency margin, which is ring-fenced and kept. The accretions on that also contributes to the improvement in the shareholders' profits.

Okay. What would be that number today?

The [unclear] funds ring-fenced is at ₹1,80,000 crore, ₹1,86,000 crore plus.

That is the ₹1,80,000 crore will be the book value, right?

At book value. Book value.

It's a book value.

What would be the market value of it?

It varies. It is various.

It fluctuates. Okay.

Last question. For the full year, what would be your outlook for the VNB margin?

We have given a 21. we have given such a strong margin in this quarter, what should we think about the full-year VNB margin for LIC?

We don't normally give a guidance, but we expect it to improve over the next few quarters as well. Of course, keeping the one uncertain factor of the RFR, otherwise, the margins should keep improving as we continue to focus on improved efficiency in terms of operations, which will result in overall expense ratio coming down, and also for the business coming out of value-accretive lines of business improving in subsequent quarters.

From this Q1 base, also you expect the margins to improve further?

Yes. Yes, yes.

Okay. Thank you so much, sir.

Wish you all the best.

Thank you, Prayesh.

Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity.

Sir, one question on the margin. We have seen a 650 bps improvement due to product mix change, and that what we are doing is due to better product mix and improvement product level margins.

If you can just share how much is due to better product mix and how much is due to improvement product level margins, that was one. Secondly, we have seen a sharp improvement in non-par savings in the same category, if you can highlight which are the products which are driving that growth, and which are the initiatives from our end which are in product level margins across the segment, like ULIP, par, entering the non-par segment, par and group, which are the key initiatives which are driving product-level margin improvement across the categories, sir?

Thanks. We have,

if you see post-IPO, we have focused, and we have come out with the non-par products, and particularly in all segments, we have increased, and we have shown the growth. As we had informed you earlier, that we are very strong in par business, and we would like to continue to grow on par side, but we also want to outgrow on non-par side, where the margins are higher than par itself.

The product introduction, modification, and withdrawal, etc., they are all the natural phenomenon for any insurance company based on the needs of the customer, and the experience which the insurers have. It's the product mix will keep on changing based on the needs of the customers, and the way they are purchased and going forward, that will define how the margins become for the corporation.

Sir, if you can give me in terms of how much is due to product mix and how much is due to product-level margins, can you break it down like 650 bps?

See, what I can tell you broadly, lines of business we were talking about, if we look at the proportion of par business, which is 37.1%, which gives VNB margin of 19.4%, the proportion of non-par individual is ₹1,678 crore, which gives margin of 49.3%, and the group business is the third group, which is 45% on APE, which gives VNB margin of 29.4%. Sir, I

just missed the last part. What was group margin, you said?

29.4% for 45% APE. This is on the proportion.

I'm talking about the proportion of APE and the proportion of VNB margin. Thanks.

Perfectly. Enough for that.

Sorry, just a clarification, the data points that you shared right now, 19.5 19.4 for par, 49.3 for non-par, and 29.4 for group, this is essentially the segmental VNB margin?

These are proportion of VNB coming from different segments.

Okay. Got it.

Thanks for this clarification. Just curious, when you mentioned that RFR and persistency both kind of are reflected in the assumption change, did you say that persistency impact is negative and RFR is higher to the extent of 5%?

That's what I said. This is based on the experience on both individual side and the group side.

Group side, the persistency has contributed negatively, and the individual side also, for various durations, it is positive, and for some durations, it is... Put together, the persistency is marginally negative, and the impact of RFR is positive, which is not something which we fix as assumption, but it is something which is already there to be used by everybody else.

Got it. Just one last one is, on the bancassurance side, there seems to be some weakness, if you could comment on that.

I think you've been doing quite well till maybe one or two quarters back. See,

we continue to focus more on that. In the first quarter, we had not finalized a few marketing plans of some of our bank partners, naturally, the starting was a bit delayed.

We expect it to be covered up in the subsequent quarters. We'll be doing much better than what we did last year.

Got it. Thank you very much, and all the best.

Thank you, sir. Thank you, Nischint.

Can you hear me?

We hear you, Srihari.

Yeah. Just to understand the VNB walk, sorry for pushing on it again, just so that it's clear in our minds.

You are saying that the impact of assumption is positive 290 bps, of which cost of economic variant on account of RFR is 500 bps. The remaining negative portion is largely on persistency and mortality, and the impact of expenses is 190 bps negative as both GST ITC as well as other expenses, the total expense ratio has slightly gone up.

Is that the right way to understand it?

That makes You have understood right, but it's on the assumption change, the assumptions getting aligned to some experience of the last two quarters.

Okay. These are economic assumption changes and negative operating variance basically, in that sense, the negative portion within that 290 bps positive?

See, if you look at the IEV walk, then all those operating variances and the numbers would be given in details, but this is the VNB walk, where what we have shown is the impact of changes in assumptions.

Got it, sir. This impact of volume, because GST removal could result in improvement in volume, that is netted off in the impact of expenses?

As

I explained earlier, that the loss of input tax credit, it forms an expense, and it gets added to the operating expenses, and once the volume goes up, then that has an probable impact on the per-policy expenses. As long as the volume is likely to go up because of the positive impact of GST removal from premium, that's going to have impact on the per-policy expenses going forward.

Thank you, sir. That's it from my side.

That's really helpful.

Sir, good evening, and thanks for the opportunity. My first question is towards the solvency ratio.

I think we have kind of maintained higher solvency ratio basically, and so should we expect protection business to increase significantly, or do you think that higher solvency ratio would be our strategy going forward?

It's not a strategy as such. One, this is pre-dividend distribution.

The dividend, once it is paid, it will take away some part of the solvency, but of course, as we get additional profit getting added to the shareholders' funds, there can be a slightly higher this thing also. Now, this will support increase in protection business or the increase in liability that we can underwrite.

That's no doubt a part of that is kept in mind. We'll be also looking at the regulatory changes before we finally take a call there.

We should have the solvency taken forward to. As of now, this is 2.35 2.42, to take away the amount of dividend that was paid subsequently this quarter, it will come down to 2.32.

We would like to see how the changes make the capital requirement fit, as well as the growth in protection and other business, and that also can be supported. We'll take a call as we go forward.

Right, that's clear. Sir, my second question is basically, I was just looking at your number of policies sold through bancassurance and alternate channels, so that increased by 16.3%, but if I look at individual NBP through this channel, it grew by only 5.3%.

Should we kind of conclude that growth is being driven by lower ticket-size policies, or are there any other factors affecting the premium growth?

The growth is not being impacted by the lower ticket-size policy. Yes, you can say the lack of availability of low ticket-size policy, because of our revision of the ticket size to meet the the changes brought in by the Master Circular, did affect, because the minimum sum assured has been increased from ₹1 lakh to ₹2 lakh.

The low ticket-size policies have come down, no doubt, but this has helped in increasing the margins as well. It will take a bit of time for the market to get adjusted, and bring back the growth in number of policies.

Right. Sir, my doubt was that your policies, they are grown by a higher amount in these channels, but your individual NBP in this channel has grown by lower amount, what's the disconnect over there?

Good evening. This is Hemant Buch here, Executive Director (Bancassurance).

In

fact, if you see impact, I would say, the two lines of business which constrains our bancassurance, it is bank per se which have, in fact, faced some sort of pressure in terms of delivery. This is precisely because of the West Asia conflict, which has affected the remittance side, and the major contributor for us being annuity and ULIPs.

Both got impacted. Because of the remittance, the annuity side got affected, and because of the market upheaval, the ULIPs side also got affected, which precisely took away some sheen out of, in fact, bank-driven business.

As CEO, sir, has rightly pointed out, we are trying to bounce back. Things are in place, and going forward, I think you will see a better kind of a growth and very robust kind of performance, both in terms of number of sales as well as in terms of premia, and that will be completed.

All

right. This is very clear.

Thanks, and wish you all the best.

Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity.

Sir, I have two questions. Sir, firstly is on the yield curve-related impact which you have specified.

Since this is a meaningful one, which has actually bloated your margins and is slightly unsustainable because the current yield curve is significantly very high, and since we will continue to grow our non-par guaranteed book faster than the overall APE, what should be our sustainable VNB margins on an overall basis if you want to think about it? Secondly, sir, if we look at ULIP, if the growth picks up in that segment, should we expect our APE growth to be back into double digits?

Because your ULIP APE has a significant proportion coming in from the monthly mode. Sir, lastly, your renewal commission on a YoY basis has declined.

Is there any particular reason for that? No,

actually, if you look at this thing, ULIP coming back in a bigger numbers certainly can help in our APE growth. Even otherwise, we are looking at increasing our APE growth by the other product lines as well.

It will certainly happen. The commission year-on-year growth has been a matter of the amount of premium collected, and out of which how much is through agents and how much is through agents who are no longer in the books, not eligible to receive commission.

It has nothing to do with any other thing. Terms of VNB margin, we expect the margin to grow something more than where we currently are and settle something around the industry average.

Okay. Sir, since last time you mentioned you are targeting mid-20s kind of VNB margin, should we expect we are on track to achieve those kind of numbers by end of the year?

Yes. Yes, sir.

Yes, we are working towards that.

Sir. Sir, and last question I have is on your average ticket size.

We have seen significant jump on to that during the quarter, will be able to sustain that, and is this primarily driven by the growth we have seen on the non-par side and the slowdown on the monthly business side?

No, no, no. Non-par is also on the monthly business side.

It's both. The par or non-par does not make a difference in terms of the frequency of premium payment.

It depends upon the product that gets sold. The annuities, when they're selling in big numbers, they come as a single premium, so that is one.

Other two immediate annuities we get immediate and deferred annuity, both we get on a single-premium front. When the annuities grow, the ticket size will grow, that is one.

Two, on the regular premium side also, because we have increased the minimum ticket of our major selling policies from ₹1 lakh to ₹2 lakh, that has already resulted in an uptake in the average ticket size. It's quite sustainable, not a problem.

This revision in the minimum sum assured we have done in this current financial year?

Because

lastly, we had done that during the surrender value guideline changes.

Yes, October 2024. Yes, the proportion of policies sold at a higher sum assured have increased, yeah.

Sir. Got it, sir.

That's it from my side. Thank you, and all the best.

Thank you, Shobhit.

Thanks, everyone, for joining our late evening conference call today. As we wrap up the review of our three-month performance for Q1 FY '27, I want to sincerely thank you for your continued trust and partnership with LIC of India.

Your questions and inputs reflect a strong understanding of our business and strategy. I hope we have been able to address them clearly.

If you require any further assistance or wish to continue the dialogue, please feel free to reach out to our investor relations team anytime. Wishing you all a pleasant evening, and thank you once again, and a good night.