The life insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) might have lost its market share but has earned a record profit of Rs 23,621 crores from its equity investment during 2018-19. It had a gross equity investment of  Rs 68,621 crore during the year.

The volatile stock market indices –Sensex- has  moved up 5000 points or 1000 points in Nifty in  2018-19.

The corporation, which is now the largest capital market investor in the country, has began 2019-20 with an investible corpous  of Rs3,48.692 crore, that will be invested in capital market instruments like bonds including government securities. corporate bonds and equities.

The market value of LIC’s investment as at end of FY 2018-19 is Rs28.74 trillion as against Rs26.46 trillion in  2017-18, showing a growth of 8.61 percent.

Moreover, the total assets of the corporation has crossed the historic figure of Rs30 trillion, for the first time.

As per provisional results, during the year 2018-19, the  corporation has invested more than Rs2 trillion in central and state government securities with an average annualised yield of almost 8.25 per cent.

Currently, about 65 percent of investments in life fund- total investment corpus LIC has accumulated over decades- of LIC are in central and state government long term securities with high interest coupons  

An investment of Rs 30,595 crore was made in corporate bonds with an average annualised  yield of 9.11percent

As per the provisional accounts fpr 2018-19, the corporations’s  total premium income- new premium along with renewal premium- was Rs3,37.200crore showing a growth of 6.08 per cent while the total benefits  paid amounted to Rs2,50.900 crore growing by as much as 26.62 percent.The corporation had mobilised a total new premium of Rs41,086.31crore in 2018-19.     

The total income of the corporation that includes total premium and investment income,is likely to be around 5,00.000 crore in 2018-19. 

Such robust income of the corporation augurs we;ll for its policyholders who can expect a descent bonus for 2018-19. THe acturial calculation of the corporation still going on and will be completed soon.  

As a result of regular follow ups, there is growth in the investment income by 5.17 per cent during 2018-19. Over the last four years ,the investments income has increased  from Rs1.53 trillion  to Rs2.06 trillion up to 2018-19.

``Over the years, barring one or two, LIC’s expenses have been met with from the income generated  from investments  by way of interest and dividends,’’ said LIC officials.

``Our investment portfolio remains untouched and continues to grow every year and is likely to cross Rs30 trillion as at the end of the current fiscal, ‘’said officials.

 However, with LIC’s declining market share in the domestic e market, the performance of the corporation has remained  an area of deep concern for the new top management of the corporation.

According to the performance analysis of the corporation by the top management headed by the newly appointed  chairman  MR Kumar, the corporation has missed its own targets in the most of the parameters during 2018-19

According to the  LIC officials,  one among the critical areas that glaringly stands out , while LIC still holds 74.71 per cent of the market share in terms of number of policies , its market share in individual  non-single premium has fallen to 40.32 percent,

LIC’s share in number of policies(NOP)  stands at 74.71 percent and first year premium(FYP)  at 66.24 percent which is 0.96 per cent less in NOP and3.16 per cent less in FYP over 2017-18.

In the individual business, LIC has a  market share of 40.32 per cent in non-single premium in 2018-19 as compared to 41. 70 percent per cent in 2017-18 and its overall market  share in FYPI(individual  is 52.22 per cent in FY 2018-19 as compared to 56.18 per cent in 2017-18.

In the individual non linked business, LIC is commanding a market share of 60.24 per cent in new single premium  with its overall market share in FYPI(individual ) being 69.25 percent.

However, in individual  linked business, private insurer have generated a whopping 99.86 percent market share with a premium of Rs24034 crores.while  LIC has collected a mere Rs34.26 crore as FYP in this segment.    

``This calls for a very urgent focus on ticket size to ensure relevance and adequacy of insurance cover for our customers,’’ said LIC officials.

``Whatever targets are given his year- 2019-20, are to be achieved and that is not open for debate . Targets are non-negotiable,’’ said Kumar in his recent brain storming interaction with the senior officials of the corporation.