LIC's market share falls to 70% as premium collection dips by 21%

New Delhi: Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the country’s largest insurer, has seen its market share slip to 70 percent this fiscal as its new business premium shrunk by over 21 percent in April-December period.  LIC garnered new premium of Rs 51,667.07 crore during the first three quarters of 2014-15 as against Rs 65,774.47 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal, a decline of 21.4 percent. As a result, market share of the insurance behemoth came down to 70 percent as against over 75 percent at the end of last fiscal 2013-14. During December, LIC added new business of Rs 5,858.55 crore by underwriting 19.14 lakh policies. Last fiscal, the state-owned insurer had earned a new business premium of Rs 90,123.75 crore. Against this, 23 private sector players registered a 16.6 percent growth in new premium collection at Rs 22,110.31 crore during the first nine months as against Rs 18,951.27 crore in the same period a year ago. Among private sector, Bajaj Allianz witnessed 11.2 percent decline its new business and earned first premium of Rs 1,575.28 crore down from Rs 1,775.98 crore. During the period, Tata AIA business more than halved to Rs 164.76 crore as against Rs 351.37 crore. Similarly, Canara HSBC OBC Life also reported 33.3 per cent decline in the new business premium collection to Rs 284.63 crore from Rs 426.52 crore in the first nine months. Leading players like ICICI Prudential, HDFC Standard, SBI Life, Max Life, Reliance Life and PNB Metlife recorded growth in new business during the first three quarters. The largest player in the segment, ICICI Prudential collected first premium of Rs 3,586.12 crore as against Rs 2,559.13 crore while SBI Life earned Rs 3,362.11 crore as compared to Rs 3,033.87 crore in the nine months. As many as 17 players in the private sector life insurance space posted growth while 6 reported decline in the new business premium. Since the largest player witnessed decline in its business, the total premium collection by 24 players taken together also shrunk by 13 percent to Rs 73,777.37 crore as against Rs 84,725.74 crore during the same period a year ago. PTI