BENGALURU (Reuters) – India’s HDFC Life Insurance Co Ltd reported a smaller-than-expected rise in fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday, as higher expenses more than offset the rise in income from premiums.
The Mumbai-based insurer said its standalone profit after tax rose a marginal 0.3% to 3.59 billion Indian rupees for the quarter ended March 31.
Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 3.73 billion rupees, as per Refinitiv IBES data.
The sale of pricier policies jumped in March after the government said it would withdraw tax incentives on such policies issued from April. That contributed to a 35.9% rise in net premium income to 194.27 billion rupees.
The government said it would now tax the total returns on the maturity of life insurance policies if the aggregate premium topped 500,000 rupees a year.
However, ballooning expenses offset this rise in income.
Management expenses, which include net commission and other operating expenses related to the insurance business, jumped 65.9%, driven mainly by higher marketing and business development expenses, the company said.
The insurer’s net income from investments also fell 15% to 11.9 billion rupees.
The company’s value of new business, which measures expected profit from new premiums and is a key gauge for growth, was up 36.9% following the merger with Exide Life Insurance, completed in the previous quarter.
Shares of HDFC Life closed 0.4% higher to 531.6 rupees ahead of the results.
(Reporting by Anuran Sadhu in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)