Kolkata: Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) registered a 35% growth in its new
business premium at Rs 25,814.49 crore during the first six months of the current fiscal compared with an over 14% degrowth seen by the private life insurance companies.
Dragged by the private segment's decline, overall life insurance industry growth stood at 12.85% during April-September.Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority (Irda) data shows that LIC registered a higher growth across single-premium and non-single premium plans. Its group plan growth, too, was robust at 64%. The numbers came as a big leg-up for the state-owned life insurer, which saw a huge decline in its first-yearpremium income during the last fiscal. LIC's market share in the first six months of the current fiscal grew to 66% over 55% in same period of the previous year. The market share of private life insurers fell to 34% in H1 over 45%in the first half of the previous fiscal.

Out of the 21 private life companies, all established players saw their first-year premium income drop.

Only the relatively newer players registered positive growth during the first half because of their low base. Of these, BhartiAxa Life and IDBI Fortis posted 32% and 29% growth respectively.First-year premium income for Bajaj Allianz,Reliance Life, HDFC Standard Life and ICICI Prudential Life fell by 28.6%,15.24%, 14.15% and 38.6% respectively. SBI Life garnered the highest first-premium income among private players but showed no growth during the first half.For Kotak Life, Aviva, Max New York Life and ING Vysya, premium income fell by 8-10%.

The next six months are significant for life insurers as maximum business growth happens during this period.

http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report_lic-s-first-year-premium-income-rises-35pct-in-h1_1302312