Good evening, everyone. I am R.

Doraiswamy, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, LIC. I would like to welcome all of you to the results and performance update for the year ended March 31st, 2026.

I also extend my gratitude to you for joining this call in the later hours of the evening today. Our results declared today have been uploaded along with the press release and the investor presentation on our website, as well as the websites of both the exchanges, BSE and NSE.

Along with me on this call, I have the Managing Directors, Shri Dinesh Pant, Shri Ratnakar Patnaik, Shri Chander. Senior officials of the corporation present on this call are Shri A.

K. Srivastava, Appointed Actuary and Executive Director (Actuarial) from the Actuarial team; Shri Sunil Agrawal, CFO from the Finance team; Shri Arindam Das Gupta, Executive Director (Investment Front Office) and CIO from the Investment team.

From the Marketing team, we have Mr. Uthup Joseph, Executive Director (Marketing/Product Development); Mr.

Hemant Buch, Executive Director (Marketing/Bancassurance and Alternate Channels); Mr. K.

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

Shobha Sulochana, Executive Director (CRM/Policy Servicing); Ms. Vandana Sinha, Executive Director (CRM/Claims and Annuities); and Shri Sanjay Bajaj, Head Investor Relations on this call.

I would now like to present the key business, operational, and financial performance highlights for the fiscal year ended March 31st, 2026. Market share: our market share by first premium, by first year premium income for the year ending 31st March 2026 is 56.66% as per IRDAI, as compared to 57.05% for the similar period ended 31st March 2025.

Therefore, we continue to maintain our leadership in the Indian insurance market along across both individual and group business segments. Now, if we break down this overall insurance market share of 56.66% into segment-wise share of the individual and group business, we would have a market share of 36.6% in individual business and 70.11% in the group business for the year ending 31st March 2026.

On a comparable basis, for the year ending 31st March 2025, the respective market share for individual and group business were 37.46% and 71.19% respectively. Premium income: for the year ended 31st March 2026, we have reported a total premium income of ₹5,35,984 crore as compared to total premium income of ₹4,88,148 crore for the year ending 31st March 2025, registering a growth of 9.8% on year-on-year basis.

The individual new business premium income for the year ended 31st March 2026 was ₹67,676 crore as compared to ₹62,495 crore for the similar period ended 31st March 2025, thereby registering an increase of 8.29% on a year-on-year basis. Renewal premium income of individual business for the year ended 31st March 2026 was ₹2,71,699 crore as compared to ₹2,56,541 crore for the year ended March 31st, 2025, registering a growth of 5.91% on year-on-year basis.

Therefore, for the year ended 31st March 2026, our total individual premium income including renewals was ₹3,39,375 crore as compared to ₹3,19,036 crore for the previous year, registering a growth of 6.37% on a year-on-year basis. The group business total premium income for the year ended 31st March '26 was ₹1,96,609 crore, comprising new business premium of ₹1,92,912 crore.

In comparison, for the year ended 31st March '25, the group business total premium income was ₹1,69,112 crore, comprised new business premium income of ₹1,64,262 crore. Therefore, for the year ending 31st March '26, the total group premium has increased by 16.26% as compared to previous year ending 31st March '25.

The breakup of business on APE basis: the total annualized premium equivalent for the year ended 31st March 2026 is ₹66,961 crore, which comprised individual APE of ₹43,335 crore and group APE of ₹23,626 crore. Therefore, on an APE basis, the individual business accounts for 64.72% and group business accounts for 35.28%.

Further, the individual, of the individual APE, the par business accounts for ₹28,121 crore and non-par amounts to ₹15,214 crore. Therefore, our non-par share of individual APE is 35.11% and par is 64.89% for the year ended 31st March '26.

As you may recall, for the year ended 31st March 2025, our non-par share of total individual business based on APE stood at 27.69%. Since then, our non-par APE has increased from ₹10,581 crore to ₹15,214 crore, reflecting an increase of 43.78% on a year-on-year basis.

At this point, I would like to take you back to our 9-month results for the period ended 31st December 2025, when our comparable non-par APE share within individual business was 36.46%. We had mentioned then that our effort would be to consolidate our non-par gains for some time, and the full year numbers visible now are a testimony of that consolidation.

Profit after tax: the PAT for the year ended 31st March '26 was ₹57,419 crore as compared to ₹48,151 crore for the last year, registering a growth of 19.25% on a year-on-year basis. VNB and VNB margins: the net VNB has registered a growth of 41.63% on a year-on-year basis to ₹14,179 crore for the year ended 31st March 2026 from ₹10,011 crore for the previous year.

We are quite happy with the rapid gains in VNB growth, given that it was only last year that we became the first life insurance company in India to cross the ₹10,000 crore mark in VNB. Further, the net VNB margin has improved by 360 basis points on a year-on-year basis to 21.2% for the year ended 31st March '26 from 17.6% for the previous year.

The solvency ratio as on 31st March 2026 improved to 2.35 as against 2.11 on March 31st, 2025. The Indian Embedded Value: the Indian Embedded Value as on 31st March 2026 has been determined as ₹7,89,185 crore as compared to ₹7,76,876 crore as on 31st March 2025.

Therefore, the IEV has registered an increase of 1.58% on a year-on-year basis. The assets under management as on 31st March 2026 was ₹57,29,396 crore as compared to ₹54,52,297 crore as on 31st March 2025.

Therefore, our AUM has registered a growth of 5.08% on a year-on-year basis. Product mix and new product launches: as on 31st March 2026, we had a comprehensive suite of 58 products, excluding the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, available for new business, including 36 exclusive individual products, 13 exclusive group products, and one common product which is eligible for group as well as individual business.

In addition, we have seven individual riders and one group rider. Post 31st March 2026, we have withdrawn one product, namely LIC's Navjeevan Shree Single Premium.

The number of policies sold: during the year ended 31st March 2026, we sold 1,84,41,175 new policies as compared to 1,77,82,975 new policies in the previous year, registering a growth of 3.7% on a year-on-year basis. Agency workforce: as on 31st March 2026, the total number of individual agents was 14,57,045 as compared to 14,86,851 as on 31st March 2025.

The market share by number of agents as on 31st March '26 stands at 44.25% as against 47.61% for March 31st, 2025. On number of policies sold basis, the agency force sold 1,81,49,660 policies during the year ended 31st March '26 as compared to 1,73,58,723 policies during the corresponding period of last year.

Further, 98.42% of our policies in the year ended March 31st, 2026 were sold by our agency force. When seen on premium basis, 91.75% of the new business premium came from our agency channel in the financial year year ending of 2025-'26.

Contribution by banca and alternate channels: our banca and alternate channels growth has been a continuous story of increasing volumes and larger intra-share market share within our channel mix. Bancassurance and alternate channels collected a new business premium income of ₹5,076 crore for the year ended 31st March 2026 as compared to ₹3,496.10 crore for the previous year, registering a growth of 45.19% on a year-on-year basis.

The new business premium income collected through banks was ₹3,151.33 crore for the year ended 31st March '26, and for the corresponding period last year, it was ₹2,576.74 crore, thereby registering a growth of 22.30% on a year-on-year basis. Further, the alternate channels collected new business premium of ₹1,924.74 crore for the year as compared to ₹919.36 crore for the year ended 31st March '25, registering a growth of 109.36% on a year-on-year basis.

The share of individual new business premium from our bancassurance and alternate channels has risen significantly to 7.51% in FY26, marking a notable improvement over the 5.59% achieved in FY25. Before I move on to other areas, I would like to say that for long, since our listing, we have quietly harbored an ambition to cross a level of ₹5,000 crore through banca and alternate channels, and this financial year, we achieved the same, and we are very happy about it.

Our overall expense ratio: for the year ended 31st March 2026, the overall expense ratio was 11.91% as compared to 12.42% for the last year. Therefore, there is a decrease of 51 basis points in our overall expense ratio on a year-on-year basis.

Persistency: on premium basis, the persistency for 13th, 25th, 37th, 49th, and 61st month up to 31st March 2026 stands at 74.64%, 68.98%, 66.94%, 63.03%, and 59.31% respectively, as compared to 74.84%, 70.99%, 66.11%, 61.51%, and 63.12% respectively up to the year ended 31st March '25. On number of policies basis, the persistency for 13th, 25th, 37th, 49th, and 61st month up to the year ended 31st March '26 stands at 64.87%, 57.65%, 55.29%, 49.78%, and 46.88% respectively, as compared to 64.12%, 59.32%, 52.66%, 48.79%, and 50.31% respectively up to the previous year ended 31st March '25.

Our persistency metrics reflect continued strength, with improvement on a premium basis in the 37th and 49th month and enhanced performance on a policy basis on the 13th, 37th, and 49th months. We are also focusing our energies on improvement across certain cohorts where we have seen a drop.

Operational efficiency and digital progress: in our digital initiative, through the agent-assisted ANANDA app, we have completed 23,90,983 policies during the year ended 31st March 2026 as compared to 14,74,208 policies on the year ended 31st March 2025, thereby registering a growth of 56.08% on a year-on-year basis. There is a growth of 29.56% in the number of active agents in ANANDA app for the year ended 31st March 2026.

The Digital Innovation and Value Enhancement initiative, DIVE: the DIVE project is being rolled out in phases both for customers and distributors. Many features and facilities have been activated, and many more will be launched in a phased manner.

We have launched the new LIC customer app titled myLIC, and a mobile app for the sales intermediaries titled LIC Super Saathi on the 15th of April 2026. myLIC is a next-generation mobile application built to redefine the experience of how policyholders will manage their life insurance portfolio.

Super Saathi app is a next-generation mobile application for LIC's marketing personnel. We hope the people logged in to this call and those who will be hearing this recording later will be able to experience firsthand our digital transformation, and please do share your feedback with us on mail or even through our Investor Relations team who is continuously engaged with you.

Claims: on individual claims front, during the year ended 31st March '26, we have processed 2,49,56,342 number of claims, which includes 2,41,25,943 maturity and survival benefit claims. On an amount basis, during the year ended 31st March 2026, the total maturity claims were ₹2,79,951 crore and the total death claims were ₹24,885 crore.

On a comparable basis, for the financial year ended March 31st, 2025, the maturity claims were ₹2,37,313 crore and death claims were ₹24,420 crore. Therefore, the maturity claims are higher by 17.97% and the death claims are higher by 1.91% on a year-on-year basis.

The marketing initiative update on Bima Sakhi Yojana: as of 31st March 2026, a total of 3,45,000 women have been designated as Bima Sakhis, successfully selling 21.94 lakh insurance policies and generating a new business premium income of ₹2,848 crore in the year ended 31st March '26. 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, we have covered 59% gram panchayats by recruiting Bima Sakhis in 1,43,924 panchayats up to 31st March 2026.

Before concluding, I would like to reiterate significant highlights of our performance. Our non-par share of individual APE business has now consistently settled at above 35% sequentially over the last three results performance updates.

Our profit after tax has grown by 19.25% to ₹57,419 crore on a year-on-year basis. This is the highest PAT in our history.

Bancassurance and alternate channels registered a growth of 45.19% on a year-on-year basis to ₹5,076.07 crore. This is the first time we have crossed ₹5,000 crore premium in banca channel.

VNB has increased by 41.63% on a year-on-year basis for FY26. This is our highest VNB till now.

VNB margin has increased by 360 basis points to 21.2% for FY26. This is our highest VNB margin till now.

IEV has increased by ₹12,309 crore to ₹7,89,185 crore as on 31st March '26, registering a growth of 1.58% on a year-on-year basis. While maintaining growth in multiple parameters, we have kept a focus on cost, and as you can see, the overall expense ratio is down by 51 basis points to 11.91% in FY26.

This is the lowest overall expense ratio for us till till now since listing. I would like to share that the board of directors has recommended a final dividend of ₹10 per equity share of ₹10 each, equivalent to ₹20 per equity share pre-bonus issue basis for the financial year 2025-'26, subject to approval of shareholders in the fifth Annual General Meeting of the corporation.

When we now look back at our 4-year journey post listing in May 2022, we feel happy that we have delivered more than what was told to the shareholders at the time of listing as our 3 to 5-year ambition with regard to product mix, channel mix, and margins. We are now very confident that having achieved significant directional changes, we are on a path of superior growth with sharper focus on enhanced performance parameters.

We extend our sincere gratitude to all our stakeholders for their complete support and faith in us, and we executed the defined strategy. With that, I now hand over to the moderator to open the floor for question-and-answer session.

Thank you very much.

Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity and congrats on a good set of numbers.

Three questions from my side. On the individual savings business on the non-par side, there was a very strong show this quarter.

I just wanted to understand that this significant growth that has come through this quarter vis-a-vis say what we saw in 3Q also and vis-a-vis say fourth quarter last year, what products would have led to this growth, and how much of this we can think to continue in the similar momentum going ahead in FY27? That is the first question.

Second is in terms of the operating assumption changes that you have mentioned in EV and VNB walk, if you could give some color on that, what are the changes that you are seeing, as well as in the VNB walk, the economic assumption changes if you could highlight what is playing out there within this particular quarter, because I think in 9 months that number, if I remember correctly, was a negative number, if you could highlight that. Lastly, sir, if you could give some color on of this margin that has been reported in the fourth quarter, what would be the trend for the individual business, how the margin would be?

Mr. Uthup Joseph, Executive Director Marketing will take the first question.

Other two...

Thank you. As far as the savings products are concerned, the question which you have asked is which products has contributed maximum towards this growth.

Actually, we have shown a growth of almost 48.40 percentage as far as the savings bucket is concerned. The product which has contributed best is Jeevan Utsav, which has given us a very good percentage as far as the savings bucket is concerned.

This product is having a good ticket size also, which has actually helped us in ensuring that this savings product is actually bringing a lot of premium to us. Then as far as the savings product is concerned, on the par side, Jeevan Labh also has performed very well, which has contributed to almost 40 percentage of the premium as far as that segment is concerned.

These two products, I can say that they have done the best performance as far as savings is concerned.

Our Appointed Actuary, Shri A. K.

Srivastava will take the EV, VNB walk and margins.

First about VNB walk. As at 31st March 2025, the VNB margin was 17.6%.

Now, as we have already spoken about the mix of business and a very strong growth in the non-par business as compared to par, see the growth is on all lines of business except probably annuity, but then there is a strong growth in non-par segment, and therefore the proportion of non-par business to the total business has gone up. This business mix which has gone up has contributed to 3% to the VNB margin.

Then the RFR for year if you see, it's range-bound, and then in some months it has gone up to 0.84, 84 basis points or so. This RFR has contributed to 3.4%.

With regard to this operating assumptions as you asked, this is mainly because some lines of business, expense has been realigned based on experience, and in a few lines of business, the persistency also has been aligned. The combined effect of the persistency and expense in some line of business adjustment based on the experience along with the GST impact, which has been taken as part of the quality expenses, the contribution is negative 2.8%.

This explains the movement of VNB from 17.6% to 21.2% as at 31st March 2026. Does that answer?

Understood.

Thank you.

Thank you. If you could also explain the same for EV walk in terms of the operating assumption changes and the variances?

Yeah.

If you look at the starting this thing as at March 2025, the figures were 7,76,876. Unwind is contributing to the extent of 74,748.

The operating assumption changes I explained, that has also the impact on the VNB and also has the impact on the embedded value to the extent of 1663 negative in case of contribution to the embedded value. The operating experience variance, whatever we had assumed, and because of the positive outcomes in each of the parameters, that operating EVOP has contributed to the extent of ₹92,639 crore.

Now, this economic assumption changes and investment variance, one thing is what has contributed is RFR change, and then another important thing is that there is a fall in MTM in equity to the extent of 53,698 and the debt to the extent of 46,853. The total, if you look at, and the dividend paid, that is also taken out from this.

If you add to all these things plus and minus, it reaches the figure as at 31st March 2026. Hope that answers.

Right, sir. Sir, just one quick follow-up.

In terms of persistency, if I look at the persistency data that you have provided, we see that there is an improvement in terms of premium basis, slight improvement, while improvement in terms of number of policies basis, but while in terms of premium basis, there is a minor drop. I just wanted to understand, I think last year you had highlighted that the strategy was to reduce lower ticket size products.

How this is playing out despite you having now vis-a-vis last year a larger, maybe a average ticket size, and how does that reflecting in that positive persistency variance number in the EV walk?

If you look at it, the focus has been to increase the ticket size. At the same time, we have also looking at increasing the overall number of sales because we are also focusing on contributing towards the vision of Insurance for all by 2047.

The effect of increased ticket size over the persistency will only be seen in the years to come. The minimum sum assured has been increased in 2024 October as part of our alignment to the new master circulars released, and the effect of that will be seen over a period of time.

We are sure that the persistency will improve across cohorts. What happens some year, the product mix differs, and the kind of policies sold during COVID and other things have also resulted in a 5-year, that is 61st month persistency being lower, but we'll be looking at increasing it across all the cohorts in the days to come.

Certainly, the increasing ticket size is going to help us in achieving this.

Sir. Understood.

Just if you could address the last question on some color on the individual business margin profile.

We have given you a total VNB margin which has gone up as compared to March 2025. If you look at in different components, if you look at the par individual business, which is about 42% of the APE, is contributing to the extent of 28% of VNB margin to the extent of 28% of VNB.

Now, if you look at individual non-par business contribution to the VNB, 22.7% is the proportion of APE, which is contributing to the extent of 53% of VNB. Similarly, so that was for group and that was for individual business, and the remaining comes from the group.

Thank you.

Right, sir. This is for the full year?

Yes, this is for the full year.

Got it, sir. Very helpful.

Thank you so much, sir, and all the best for FY27.

Thank you.

Hi, good evening. I just wanted clarification.

What you mentioned is that par business is contributing to around 28% of VNB, individual non-par is 53, and group is 19%. Is my understanding right?

That's correct. Yes.

Better now?

Yes.

Is this better now? Hello?

Yes. Yes, Mr.

Chawathe. Yes, this is better.

Sure. I'm just saying that of the economic assumption change and variance of ₹72,000 crore, I think you just shared a breakup between equity and debt.

Can you just repeat that number?

Equity is 53,698, and the debt is 46,853.

As a percentage. Got it.

Now just a couple of things, if I look at the P&L statement, your debit fair value change is almost ₹1.5 lakh crore decline. Now I was just curious, your equity market book has not corrected or not gone down as much.

I think even the equity benchmark indices have also not come off so much. Why is the debit fair value change so high?

There are two components to it. One is the realization of the fair value change which happened during the year, and plus some portion definitely is related to the market position as of 31st March 2026 as compared to 31st March 2025.

Equity market, if I look at the benchmark, Nifty 500 etc. was almost flat, right?

There should not be almost a ₹1.5 lakh crore decline on the equity investment book of ₹15 lakh crore, it's a fairly sharp decline.

Just to add here, there was a lot of volatility at the end of the financial year, particularly the last month, that is month of March. In March, value went down, but again in the month of April, we have recouped almost 80% of the value.

That has happened.

Got it. The other thing is, on this accounting policy change where you said that accounting of debt investments, is this now going to be the amortization of discount versus the capital gains policy that was booked earlier?

You mentioned a number of around 11,000 odd crores. Now is this the net impact or is this the discounting or the gross component?

This is a gross component. As if we would have accounted this year on year, this would have been recognized.

This is a one-time correction that has happened for the past investments that were made in the past. It is a gross impact.

No, sorry, this won't be one time, right? This is amortized.

This into the duration of the book will be... This is based on

whenever those securities were bought. From that point of time if I would have recognized the amortization regularly, this would have been the impact of the overall investment that I hold as of 31st of March 2026.

That's right. What is the duration of your bond book?

12 to 13

years. That would be the duration.

Sure. I'm just curious, if the policy was not changed, what would be the net impact on the surplus or PBT?

The majority of the portion is going into the participating, because majority of the securities are held in the participating line of business. Out of this 11,000, roughly about 9,000 odd crore is the impact in the participating, which does not impact the PAT at all directly.

I think the notes to accounts say that this is essentially the non-linked part of the book.

Non-linked.

Non-linked.

Non-linked. Includes par as well.

Got it. It doesn't really impact the P&L.

Sure. I think just last if I can squeeze your dividend policy, you have increased the payout, which is a good thing.

I'm just curious how should we think about the payout ratio going forward? See,

the payout ratio will depend on how the regulatory changes also happen. We have to be a bit cautious in releasing it because the there are some expected regulatory changes, particularly in respect of risk-based capital being planned to be introduced.

We are not sure when it is going to be introduced, we need to build some reserves so that we remain at a comfortable level of solvency throughout. That is one one thing which we have to keep in mind.

We have now released what we think what our board felt is a rightful amount to be to be released immediately as a as a matter of our paying back to the shareholders. Before that, we have done that bonus issue.

Bonus issue followed by an increased dividend is what we have done this year. We expect it to be sustained in the years in the future also.

That also has been kept in mind before the board decided the amount of dividend to be declared.

Got it. You mean the payout ratio, right?

The dividend...

Yes.

Got it. Thank you very much.

Those were my questions, and all the best.

Thank you.

Hi. Good evening.

Congratulations on a good set of numbers. Most of my questions have been answered.

Sir, the line was a little unclear, the change in operating assumptions. Most of your operating assumptions are actually yielding positive variances.

Apart from GST, what is contributing to negative changes over here?

Sorry, operating experience variance is on three counts, that is persistency, mortality, and expenses.

Then why is your operating assumption change negative? Apart from GST, GST would be one negative, then?

Yeah. Not only GST.

It's GST, and some lines of business as I said, the expenses have been adjusted to the current year's experience. The persistency for some lines of business where it has come down, there I think that adjustment for that particular line of business, because the lapsation has gone up, so that has been accounted for in that variance.

The

another question I had is your persistency positive variance is quite large. Now is there any sort of one-time element in it, one any particular policy types which is contributing to this?

Because on a premium basis, there is some sort of negative persistency that we observed, right, in the disclosures.

As we had discussions earlier as well, in 2024, we had the ticket size were increased for most of the policies. Now there the full experience is yet to unfold.

We need to see how going forward that unfolds. Before that, it has to be line of business-wise.

We need to see where the persistency or the lapsation has come down, and though overall it has gone up, for some lines of business, the impact has come down.

Understood, sir. That's it from my side.

Hi. Good evening.

Thanks for the opportunity and great set of numbers. My question again is around capital and dividend policy.

If we look in terms of the current solvency regime, a 235% now we are at solvency ratio, that I would say perhaps the strongest in the sector, and of course it has been rising. Now when it comes to dividend, of course your dividend payout ratios are at a decent level.

However, given this kind of a capital glut and solvency accumulation, one would expect it to be even higher. You seem to be a bit or reasonably more cautious around risk-based capital, whereas if we see some of your, the private sector peers, they have kind of a hopes of risk-based solvency leading to some sort of a release in capital or you can say that less capital expense.

Now what is the reason behind your cautiousness? What is driving that okay you fearing that there could be kind of a increased capital requirement once you are transition to risk-based solvency?

What is this apprehension about capital? See,

actually it is not because of any fear. Every insurance company has to decide, and when we declare results, as has been the practice, as we have been trying to show, that whatever we are demonstrating should lead to further improvements going forward, and our investors as well as the policyholders should not be for a shock.

Now you would appreciate that when we go for a risk-based capital, LIC because of large book size of it with participating policies and our exposure to equity is significantly higher as compared to the competing companies. Now on one side, that leads to improved returns to the policyholder.

That's why we are sustaining something like 8.92 to be the as compared to the previous year something around 8.5 or so. On the other side, when the risk-based capital assessments are done, as of now it has only been a quiz exercise, I will not get into details of that, but the point here is sensitivity to the volatility in equities is a significant factor for which will impact the risk-based capital.

As of now, IRDA has not firmed up what is the ultimate protocol which will be formulated, but based on that thing, there's an area where to we have to be concerned. We are in continuous discussion, and we have submitted our points of view.

We are, as a prudent and responsible insurance company, already 2.35 is the situation which we are showing, and we should continue to be like that. We would like to first understand fully how this RBC is going to pan out, what is the implication of that thing, so that when we have any shift in dividend policy, in fact already LIC started with a dividend declaration of ₹3, moved on to ₹10, six or four, then to 12, and now 12 to 20 on pre-bonus issue, which is a significant improvement coming on top of bonus.

We do not want to create expectations which cannot be sustainable for future. As a responsible organization, we would like how the RBC pans out, and as I explained to you, because of the exposure into equity, the ultimate numbers which will be taken, factors which will be taken for determining sensitivity, because risk-based capital is going to be dependent upon the factors which are applied to different parameters.

Then we will be able to, and also, we also want to ensure that we have to continuously grow. You would actually if you deep dive into the outcomes, you would see the lines of business which are most profitable to us, in fact some of the products which are most profitable to us, non-par, as is expected, in the initial stages consume capital.

While we want to be prudent and on the high solvency side, we also want to grow. The growth aspirations are there, and we would like this capital to be consumed for the growth purposes also.

Already LIC is delivering on shifting of business profile as well as consolidating on solvency, and being aware about the possible scenarios in the risk-based capital, we are walking a journey in which we continue to walk a growth trajectory and maximize and utilize our capital, and we should not run out of capital for any reason. As a responsible institution, we have while catered to the expectations, we want to be very sure about how the risk-based capital scenario comes out, and then take a sort of finality to the dividend policy will emerge only after that thing.

Thanks. One follow-up, one another question regarding your margins.

GST came as sort of, of course, one-off this year. Now that has consumed 2-odd percent of margin.

If I remove that, the margin is 23-odd percent. Now next year, when I see the two benefits that you have derived this year, product mix changes and also the economic assumption changes, probably movement in terms of safe and absolute levels would probably not be there, and also you will have to respond with the rising yields by offering probably higher IRR.

Nevertheless, in a kind of a stable product mix and these economic assumptions, is it fair to assume that, okay, the margins will be looking more closer to 23-odd percent next year?

I think we would not like to guess into it. The beauty of a diversified product like what LIC is having, where some people tend to discount our group business, but that's also giving the markets and the parameters and the scenarios and the factors will continue to change.

Something which is going to be contributor this year can become a challenge for the next year. We have to work upon in the direction, and if you could see the margins in the last quarter was significantly higher than for the overall year.

We would like to see, this is the beauty of a balanced portfolio. For example, we have got large annuity book size, we have got ULIP, we have got non-par business, we have got group business.

What we expect and what is our strategy is, and the market is as market whether it's insurance market or investment market will continue to change and evolve, and differently. For example, nobody perhaps was expecting interest rates to go up, right?

Then the RFR contributed. Similarly, at times RFR may not contribute, but then that will lead to the market valuations going up.

What is our strategy is to be able to anticipate the market, to be able to rebalance the portfolio, and keep on working on the long-term strategies. The goal had been to cross 20, which we have achieved.

Nobody can say this will be upwards or, but that is the direction in which, and as we have been saying from beginning, margin is very important, but for LIC, ultimately it is the VNB growth which is the most important, because that the most balanced version of the business growth and the VNB margin growth. We do not want to be going overboard on VNB margins because the customers are also very critical, and the profitability is very important, but the customer base has to grow.

Our ultimate strategy as you mentioned rightly, yes, we expect margins to further improve, but that all depends upon various factors, and that will have to be seen over a period of time. This is what we have been mentioning, that soon there will be a time wherever margins and the margins for the market will converge, and that is clearly the direction in which we are seeing things pan out.

Thanks for following.

Thank you.

Hi, good evening, everyone. First, few questions from my side.

Firstly, if I look at your EV walk, and this is almost the second or the fourth second part of fourth year where you have been sustainably reporting a positive other variance, which is ex of persistency, expense, and mortality. I just wanted to get some color on what exactly gets factored in this line item and how should really one think of it going ahead?

My second question is on the persistency side. Now, what you're seeing persistency are three trends.

On a premium basis, we are seeing some softness on the 13th and 25th month, but you've also strengthened your assumptions on persistency. On the flip side, we are also seeing positive releases from the back book in the EV walk.

Now, it would be great if you can kind of bifurcate this performance and persistency across the three product classes, the three major product classes, which is on the individual side par, non-par, and linked business, both on the back book and on the strengthening that you have done and on the yearly performance that we are seeing on a y-o-y basis. The third question was on the P&L, and two questions rather on this part.

One is if you can give some color on why the operating expenses were high in the fourth quarter, and also in terms of benefit payouts, was there any lump-sum group related payout in the fourth quarter?

I'll take the last question first. There is no lump-sum group payouts that happened in the last quarter or anything like that.

We had some, what you call, assured benefit of individual policies which were sold in big numbers 25 years back, which policies are maturing now. One cohort of policies called Jeevan Shree.

We expect the number of policies that mature, we already mentioned in the last year also. In 2025-'26 and 2026-'27 are expected to be significantly high, and all those are with a high sum assured also, high ticket size sold in those years.

There is a good amount of maturity claims that are going to happen, that happened in the last quarter as well as will continue to happen till January of 2027. We are well-planned and working towards that.

That is one reason why the outgo on number of policies, and particularly the benefit payouts was more in the last quarter. On the EV and VNB margin, I would like to ask my Appointed Actuary to answer.

If I correctly understand the question, that was on persistency. Persistency which has given a big positive of 3509.

I think that's the question on that, you want further bifurcation? Is that the question?

Basically I'm trying to understand that if I break up the persistency variance and also the strengthening that you have done in the assumption changes on persistency across the three major product cohorts, which is par, non-par, and linked, if I were to look at it like sum of parts of the three products, and how have each of the product segments behaved?

In fact, as I mentioned earlier, in group line of business, because there is some persistency for some line of business it had come down, there that persistency assumption was strengthened, and simultaneously in that area, whatever was assumed on account of persistency, the actual experience was a little different from that. For group line of business, therefore it was strengthened.

For par business, as I said, 13th month persistency has improved. That persistency assumption per se has not changed, and that has contributed to positive of 2463.

Actually, just to clarify on that, these assumptions are set every year, and then it is largely drawn from the previous year's experiences, right? You would appreciate that for our non-participating business, which has come into picture for very short period of time, we have to largely drop on the experience of the past.

Good thing is with the changes which have happened in the previous few years, when the assumptions are set, it is expected that we have to first actually believe that it is going to change. The resultant largely coming for par is for all these changes which have happened since October 2024 or so.

Ticket size has improved, the nature of business has improved, not across the entire portfolio, but for particular policies which are beneficial to us. Because of that, the large contribution has come.

Actually, in almost all lines of business, positive contribution has come onto that number 3509, largely coming from participating and group business, and small amount coming from non-participating business also, because a chunk of business is there, large business is there. Got it, sir.

If you can take the question on the other variances, which have been reporting a positive number for some time now.

On which operational variance you are?

In the operating variance, you have divided into four buckets, right? Persistency, mortality, expense, and others.

Expenses as I have explained that has contributed positively as our experiences better than what was assumed. The persistency also has contributed as we see that.

Mortality is almost flat, there's no big variance on account of mortality and morbidity. These are the three areas on which this has been divided.

Persistency, it is 3509, as we said. The expense also, it is a positive.

While I say this, the GST impact, this is the net of GST impact. GST impact has contributed negative to that extent.

If you talk about the bracket of the others, there's not much difference as compared to the last year. That is coming on for some counts of cost of residual non-hedgeable risk, and then frictional cost of capital, and slight model changes and reserve differences which are there.

It's about slight changes compared to the last year is there. Largely, as Appointed Actuary just explained, coming from the persistency and the expenses also.

These are the main contributors to this.

Got it. Thank you, and all the best.

Thank you.

Hi. Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity, and congrats for a strong set of numbers.

I've got three questions. First is I wanted to know if you've done any revisions to the IRR in the non-par category over last 12 months, and if I look at financial year '27, do you think there needs to be an increase in the offering rates?

That's question number one. Question number two, I was looking at your agency count.

Your voice is not coming clear. It's not audible.

Is this better, sir?

Now it is better, yes. Yeah.

My first question was on non-par pricing. I just wanted to know have we done any revision to the IRR over the last 12 months?

Secondly, if I look at financial year '27, do you intend to increase any offering rate in the non-par category? My second question was in terms of the agency count.

I was looking at your agency count at the end of financial year '25, you were about 1.48 million, and now we are at about 1.45 million at the end of March 2026. There has been kind of a reduction, and obviously our market share has also kind of come down in terms of number of agents.

How should we see that going forward? Lastly, in terms of the number of policies sold, if I look at individual policies sold, they have gone up by 4%, but if I look at the policies sold on bancassurance and alternate channels has declined by a very strong 36%.

Just wanted to know the reasons for that. See,

on the first question of the IRRs you just mentioned about, the IRR is a factor which depends upon the available investment opportunities, not necessarily from year-to-year basis, but for the duration for which the products are priced, as well as for the competitive reasons. Then there has to be balanced between what IRRs can be given in the products in a competitive scenario, ensuring that the policyholders' reasonable expectations and competitive scenario both are met, plus as you have been asking in the previous questions, ensuring that the margins are not compromised.

We'll continue to watch and see whether there is a possibility of also added to it the hedging possibilities, particularly in the non-participating portfolio, how much of the risk can be hedged, because as of now, these hedging instruments are not available for very long duration. All these constraints and opportunities have to be balanced, and that is the reason depending on the investment opportunities, possibly suppose the investment goes up in a particular year, does not mean that it is going to be ensured for 15, 20 years of the life of the policy.

We have to take a very conscious call, particularly in case of the non-par products where everything is guaranteed, and as the VNB margins go upwards, they can move in the different direction if proper calls are not taken. That is important area, and definitely we believe that giving best value to the customer is the starting point for the business growth and for the purpose of sustainability of an insurance company.

Wherever we believe whether these are the annuity products and we have been giving one of the most competitive returns if you could see in our non-participating products, that's why a major uptick. This is outcome of the appropriate pricing and value to the customer.

That has been the focus for us, and we'll continue to work on that direction.

As far as the agency growth is concerned, you have rightly pointed out that there is a small reduction in the number of agents to the tune of around 30,000, coming to around a negative variation of 2 percentage. Let me tell you that over so many years if you look at even the increase or decrease as far as our net agency addition or deletion is concerned, it is in these type of numbers only, and it has never affected us as far as the business is concerned.

Basically, the current year we'll be looking at better recruitment, as well as we will be having a lot of initiatives to ensure that the quality of the agent is going up and the productivity is going up. The total focus will be on that to ensure that this is taken care of, and also we'll be taking care of new recruitments as well as ensuring that the existing agents are preserved.

That is what...

Just two more things I would like to add: training will be a focus for the new agents as well as existing agents. Second will be younger age group agents we're going to rope in in more numbers, so that they're with us for quite some time, and they will address the requirements of the millennials.

Coming to in fact the reduction in number of sales through bancassurance, primarily it is not in fact bank-driven or in fact alternate channel-driven performance decline. It is mainly attributed to one geographical issue where one of our corporate agency and particularly a microfinance institution was not able to concentrate that heavily, and that has impacted, I think, in the earlier quarters also the same phenomenon was observed, and it was articulated.

Having said that, yes, no doubt the number has come down slightly in terms of bank, but it's a conscious decision, because some login days kind of concepts in fact have been done away with, because that was affecting the persistency part, and it was conscious decision to do away from that kind of initiative by our partners, and concentrate more on in fact better and bigger ticket size, so that going forward we don't impact the persistency part of it through our bancassurance vertical. Largely the decline is attributed from the micro side, and overall banca universe in terms of bank as well as alternate channel more or less remains in fact intact.

Now gradually the shift has started in terms of picking up on number of sales. If you observe only for the quarter, that is Q4 alone, leaving aside the pain of earlier three quarters, Q4 has in fact given us almost 10% growth in terms of number of sale also, and now the healthy trend is going to continue from here on.

Right. This is very helpful.

Thanks, and wish you all the best.

Thank you.

Hi, sir. Thanks a lot for taking my questions.

My two questions are, one, on your VNB margin, you indicated that you expect VNB margins to continue to expand. Just wanted to understand what would be the building blocks there, given you are saying that the non-par mix should now consolidate here.

If the yield curve does not steepen further, then economic benefit that you've got this year may not recur. Then how do you see the margin expansion from here playing out?

If you could help me understand this a bit better, it would be helpful. My second question is, we are moving towards IFRS, you indicated on the call about risk-based capital framework as well.

On the IFRS, if you could help us understand how would the move from I-GAAP to IFRS result in how should we look at that way of translating into the CSM in-force? If you could give us some color on how to think about that, that would be helpful.

Thank you.

Before I ask my Appointed Actuary to give you more details, the focus would be on increasing the ticket size. The product mix that we are selling, though the mix may not increase too much, we would like it to consolidate or whatever it is.

Two aspects: one, the ticket size of the policies going up; and two, improvement in persistency are the ones which should be the drivers for margin expansion further. Appointed Actuary can throw further light on.

With regard to implementation of Ind AS, a certain exercise we have already carried out. A couple of reports we have already submitted to the regulator.

We are further working on these things, but there are many works which have to go on before we can have a view on how the margins are going to be moving going forward.

Yeah. Thank you.

Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity, and congrats on a great set of numbers.

Sir, I have only one question, which is on your product mix. If we look at the par business, which was not growing in the first half of the year or last year second half, that business has picked up the momentum.

If I look at the non-par guaranteed business, that is now contributing to close to lower teens kind of business mix, and in NBP if I look at, that is in high teens. If you can give us some color around what kind of product mix are we aspiring for?

Should we see more gradual shift towards the non-par guaranteed piece of business rather than the ULIP business, which we have seen historically? This is my question.

To straightaway answer, it's a bit difficult, but there's a impact of the flair in the market as well. When the markets give a good opportunity for people to invest and there's a good amount of interest that is being shown, ULIPs also get a good amount of welcome, and so ULIPs also show a growth.

We would naturally like to increase our contribution from guaranteed business, both in terms of non-par savings as well as protection, as well as tap the market in full in terms of annuity business that is possible. It has to be a growth in all the engines, but only thing is ensuring that the margins are kept in mind when we look at increases.

When we have to fulfill our responsibility towards ensuring Insurance for all by 2047 or in expanding the coverage as well as penetration in the market, we need to have a focus on the bottom of pyramid as well. That is one reason why we have a good number of policies sold on the microinsurance as well as on small sum assureds also to cater to the needs of every segment of the society.

There, in turn, results sometimes in lesser persistency rates, as well as in terms of margins getting affected. When we are focusing on a mix which will have a good number of policies with high ticket sales on the non-par savings and protection, we expect the margins to be taken well care of.

Anything else you would like to add?

See, the starting and the important point for the corporation is not focus on margins only. As we have been mentioning, our primary responsibility is to ensure that we provide the products and solutions which cater to the needs of the customers.

While margin became an important criteria, but we had a situation in which our entire book was participating business, and participating business from margin point was low-margin business. Then, we were leaving out a big segment of society which wanted guaranteed products, and eventually in this situation, this guaranteed products offered us an opportunity to increase and go towards a segment where the market needed it for their needs, and this helped us improve the margins.

In between, you have seen the journeys in which certain non-participating products because the interest rates coming down had a challenge on the margins also. Margin we are not saying that we are focusing only on increase in margins.

We actually reached 21%. This journey possibly can be very gradual and slow from here, because we have seen even for the industry, the margins have been around between 20s to maximum 30s for a very short period of time.

We have reached a right level. What we want, as we mentioned earlier also, not only focusing on margins, but being a responsible insurer and with a focus on Insurance for all.

Sometimes this becomes challenging. Margin can be improved by offering very few policies of high ticket size only, but then we have responsibility to ensure this Insurance for all by 2047 and contribute towards a larger cause.

Therefore, we'll have to ensure that we offer products, variety of products, and train our agents and the marketing forces. In fact, the question that you asked about the agency coming down is also because of the focus on the quality of the agency force and the productivity to be the focus.

All this balancing will continue to happen. We are at a very good level, 20% having crossed, VNB having seen a 40% plus growth.

Now here onwards, the changes will be dynamic depending on the market situation, but almost we are not looking for any major significant changes from here, but largely looking to consolidate from this position, so that the VNB growth should happen. Either it should come through improved margins or either it should come through improved business growth.

We are happy with either situation as long as the VNB growth can continue to be achieved.

Got it, sir. Sir, just a small follow-up.

This is related to current situation which we are in. Last 2 months, we have seen market being very choppy.

How have you seen the ULIP demand or the non-par demand, guaranteed product demand being sustaining?

It is too early to comment. Perhaps the effect of the crisis has not completely been percolated, but as of now, what we are seeing in the month of April, our performance has been good.

It has been in tune with what we are doing in the previous financial year, and it has been better than that as well. Now we are finding that our trajectory in terms of growth in volume has been there.

It spans across both participating as well as non-participating. We are seeing good growth in terms of both the number of sales as well as the premium that is being accumulated.

Particularly, the April figures have been a testimony to that.

Sir. Thank you, and wish you all the best.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you. To begin with, I sincerely thank you for joining us this evening for LIC's performance review for the financial year '26.

Thanks for your continued faith and trust in us. Your very focused and sharp questions on a continuous basis keeps us on our toes, and we are able to dynamically adjust our business strategies to achieve better outcomes on all parameters.

I do hope we have addressed all your concerns today. Should you require any further clarification or wish to continue this dialogue, our Investor Relations team remains at your disposal.

Thank you once again for your time and engagement. Wishing you a very good evening.

Thank you.