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Informist, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025

 

By Shubham Rana

 

NEW DELHI - ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd. is expected to post a year-on-year rise in its net profit for the September quarter, driven by higher premium income and lower underwriting losses, according to brokerages tracking the insurer. Sequentially, the net profit is seen broadly unchanged.

 

ICICI Lombard, the second-largest general insurance company by market share, is expected to post a net profit of INR 7.41 billion for the September quarter, according to the average of estimates of four brokerages. This will be up 7% on year and a tad down from the INR 7.47 billion profit reported for the June quarter.

 

Motilal Oswal Financial Services has the lowest net profit estimate at INR 7.01 billion and Kotak Institutional Equities has the highest estimate of INR 8.14 billion. The company will release its financial results for the September quarter Tuesday.

 

 

The insurance company had reported a 29% rise in its net profit in the June quarter against expectations of a loss because of a year-on-year fall in the underwriting loss. For the September quarter, the company is again expected to show a year-on-year decline in underwriting loss. Three of the four brokerages expect ICICI Lombard's underwriting loss to narrow in the September quarter from INR 1.61 billion a year ago, with only Motilal Oswal projecting a bigger underwriting loss this time.

 

 

Excluding Motilal Oswal, the remaining three brokerages see the net earned premium growing to INR 52.70 billion in the September quarter, up 5% on year. Net earned premium was INR 51.36 billion during the June quarter, up 14% on year, which was the lowest year-on-year pace of growth in six quarters. The June quarter net premium income was 64% of the gross direct premium of INR 80.53 billion.

 

Motilal Oswal is the only brokerage to project an on-year decline in ICICI Lombard's net earned premium in the September quarter because of the new accounting norms. "YoY decline in NEP (Net Earned Premium) growth due to 1/n accounting, while recovery is seen in the auto sales," Motilal Oswal said in a report.

 

While net premium income data was not available, ICICI Lombard's gross direct premium income fell 2% on year to INR 65.96 billion in the September quarter, according to data from the General Insurance Council. In September, the company had a near 9% market share among all non-life insurance companies in the country.

 

According to the revised norms of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India, non-life insurers can take into their profit and loss accounts only the annual premium for all policies underwritten after Oct. 1, 2024. Earlier, non-life insurers, which also offer long-term policies, would book the premium for the entire duration for the policy as income.

 

Brokerages differed in their assessment of ICICI Lombard's key ratios in the September quarter. Kotak Institutional Equities projected a 145-basis-points on-year decline in the combined ratio in the September quarter to 103% while Motilal Oswal estimated it at 106%.  

 

The combined ratio is a measure of profitability used to gauge how well an insurance company is performing. A ratio below 100% indicates the company is generating an underwriting profit, while a ratio above 100% means it is paying out more money in claims than it is receiving in premiums. In the quarter ended June, the combined ratio had risen 40 bps to 102.9%.

 

All 11 brokerage reports on ICICI Lombard that are available with Informist have a 'buy' rating on the company with an average target price of INR 2,218. The insurance company's share price has declined 8% since it released its June quarter earnings on Jul. 15. At 1415 IST Monday, shares of ICICI Lombard traded 1.7% lower at INR 1,832.00 on the National Stock Exchange.

 

The following are the Jul-Sept earnings estimates for ICICI Lombard General Insurance from four brokerages in descending order of the estimate of net profit in INR million:

 

Brokerage Firm	Net Premium Income (in INR million)	Net Profit (in INR million)
Kotak Institutional Equities	52,266	8,135
JM Financial Institutional Securities Pvt Ltd	56,035	7,493
YES Securities (India) Ltd	49,794	7,018
Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd	48,867	7,008
Average	51,740	7,413

 

End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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