India's LIC posts quarterly profit rise on lower employee costs
May 27 (Reuters) - Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIFI.NS), opens new tab, the country's biggest insurer, reported a 38% rise in fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday, helped by lower employee-related expenses.
LIC's profit after tax rose to 190.13 billion rupees ($2.23 billion) for the quarter ended March 31 from 137.63 billion rupees a year earlier.
Its employee renumeration and welfare costs fell to 59.28 billion rupees from 137.50 billion rupees a year earlier.
However, net premium income dropped 3% to 1.48 trillion rupees.
LIC's policy sales in the quarter were under pressure due to new regulations implemented earlier in the fiscal year, which reduced the charges policyholders paid if they closed their policies before maturity. The insurer had boosted sales before the norm changed from October.
Its solvency ratio, the measure of an insurer's ability to meet its long-term financial obligations, rose to 2.11 during the quarter from 1.98 a year earlier and 2.02 in the prior quarter.
Shares of the insurer ended 0.14% higher ahead of results.
($1 = 85.3610 Indian rupees)
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