For the entire financial year 2026 which ended on March 31 this year, profit rose 35% to Rs 1,600 crore, including gains from the sale of its stake in ICICI Pension Fund Management Company. Net premium income jumped 17% YoY to Rs 19,180 crore. One-time premiums increased 46% YoY, while renewal premiums rose nearly 6% YoY.
Value of new business (VNB), which reflects expected profit from new policies, increased more than 21% YoY to Rs 965 crore, supported by an improved product mix. Annualised premium equivalent (APE) sales, a key measure of new business for insurers, rose 9.4% to Rs 3,830 crore.
“The recent GST reform in September 2025 has made insurance policies more affordable, and our retail protection segment registered a strong 50.9% year-on-year growth in the second half of FY26,” said Anup Bagchi, MD and CEO of the company.
Margins on new business expanded to 24.7% at the end of March from 22.8% a year earlier, as a shift towards higher-margin products helped offset the impact of the loss of a tax credit following tax cuts.
For FY26, the company reported a total premium of Rs 53,125 crore, up 8% YoY, indicating resilience in customer demand despite macro uncertainties. Retail weighted received premium stood at Rs 8,206 crore, while annualised premium equivalent (APE), a key measure of new business sales, grew 2% to Rs 10,641 crore.
The company’s assets under management expanded to Rs 3.13 lakh crore, supported by market performance and consistent inflows, while embedded value, a key indicator of long-term shareholder value, increased 10% to Rs 52,989 crore.
ICICI Prudential Life announces dividend
Along with the Q4 results, the life insurer announced a final dividend of Rs 1.65 per equity share. The dividend will be paid to the eligible shareholders within 30 days from the declaration at the upcoming AGM. The record date to determine the eligibility of shareholders set to receive the payment is yet to be announced.
ICICI Prudential is India’s first major life insurer to report its results in a quarter where retail policy growth is expected to be supported by tax cut benefits, while demand for market-linked products, where returns depend on equity market performance, is likely to remain subdued amid volatility.
Should you buy, sell or hold?
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company shares have gained more than 1% in the past week, but fell over 6% in one month. The stock is down nearly 19% in 2026 so far. In the longer term, the stock gained around 24% in three years and 20% in five years.
JM Financial hiked the target price of the stock to Rs 640 apiece, while maintaining its ‘Buy’ rating after the release of the Q4 results. The latest target price implies an upside potential of more than 17% from the stock’s previous closing price. The domestic brokerage noted that the company registered a weak APE growth but reported a strong margin of 25.2% in Q4 FY26 resulting in healthy VNB growth of 21% YoY.
“This was led by strong individual protection growth of 60%, even while group savings grew, and individual savings business was weak. For FY26, while individual APE was flat YoY, total APE/VNB grew 2%/11%, with margin of 24.7%, +190bp YoY, +40bp JMFe. Negative variances were largely expected with the weak persistency reported and steepening bond yields. We believe current valuations of 1.1x Mar’28E EV prices in the weak growth and any uptick in growth can see the stock rally as and when macros improve. With outperformance on margin, despite the GST 2.0 hit, we raise our margin forecasts while cutting FY27E growth, resulting in 2%/3% VNB cut over FY27–FY28E,” it added.
Motilal Oswal Financial Services kept a ‘Buy’ call on the stock, with a target price of Rs 650 apiece. It increased its APE and VNB estimates by 1.8% for FY27-28, considering the strong Q4 performance. The domestic brokerage noted that the company’s continued efforts toward product mix shift and increasing retail protection contribution resulted in continued YoY expansion in VNB margin, despite the loss of input tax credit after GST exemption. “In the long term, the company’s profitability will be supported by higher volumes, driven by GST exemption, increased traction of non-linked products, and improved product-level margins,” it added.
Nomura upgraded its rating for the stock to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’, but cut its target price to Rs 680 apiece, implying an upside potential of more than 24%. It noted that the company’s management did not share FY27 growth guidance due to the uncertain global environment. Nonetheless, under the new leadership team, the firm delivered a 9% VNB CAGR over FY24-26. “We see more upside to our assumptions should performance improve further,” it said.
Given a 19% correction in the share price in 2026 so far, the implied APE/VNB growth is just 1.3% over FY25-40F, Nomura said. “We build in a 9% APE/VNB FY26-29F CAGR over FY26-29F. Based on this, we arrive at a revised target price of Rs 680 (vs Rs 740 previously), which implies Mar-2028F PEV of 1.44x. The key reason for the lower target price is weaker ROEV profile vs earlier estimates,” it added.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)