Sunday, April 30, 2017

Life Insurance Companies : How good are they for Long term

 

The moment some one hears about Life insurance, many would assume that we are talking about LI Policies  / products. It is a matter of fact that Life insurance by virtue of its strong sales team (for what ever reason it is!), have sold lemon to almost everyone. We come across wide spectrum of people – right from our Maid in village to CEO of companies in cities – everyone have invested knowingly or unknowingly in Life insurance products. While Endowment products were popular earlier, Ulip’s followed later. Infact many Life Insurance agents SOLD ULIP’s as Mutual funds with life insurance benefits. (Kindly note I mentioned it as sold – not bought).

What ever said and done, Life insurance companies – be it Government owned LIC or private life insurance companies keep finding new prospects and keep selling. That means the companies which own these Life insurance should be doing good. That makes them interesting proportion to invest. While vast majority of public buys these insurance policies (and make meager returs), let’s buy these Life insurance company shares and grow our wealth many fold.

In India there are 54 Insurers :

  • 24 Life insurance companies,
  • 24 General Insurance companies,
  • 5 Exclusive Health Insurance companies
  • 1 Reinsurance company

Of the 24 Life insurance company (which includes LIC), ICICI Pru Life and Max Life are listed in stock market. Life insurance is a long term business. Roping in customers is largely a one time affair. Year after year, the client continues to pay premium to insurance company. Though majority of investors do not discontinue their policy (high persistency ratio), there is a chance of discontinuance or switch.

ICICI Pru Life Insurance company:

  • This is a JV between ICICI Bank and Prudential Corp Holdings UK
  • It is the first private sector life insurance company
  • They started operations in Dec 2000
  • They enjoy a market share of 11.30%
  • Their AUM stands at Rs.1,13,611 Crores as on Dec 2016
  • At present, they are the first and only private sector life insurance company to cross an AUM of 1L Cr.
  • Their weighted received premium increased by 27%
  • Persistency ratio increased to 83.40% from 80.90% a year ago.
  • Solvency ratio is 294.30% vs regulatory stipulation of 150%
  • Subsidary : ICICI Prudential Pension Funds Management company – registered as pension fund manager with PFRDA

Max Financial Services:

  • Got listed as a result of restructuring of Max India.
  • Owns majority stake in Max Life
  • Max Life
    • India’s largest non-bank private life insurance company
    • 4th Largest LI Company in India
    • JV with Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance of JapanComplex restructuring announced in Aug 2016
      • Max life to be merged into Max Financial Services ( In ratio 1 share MFS for 5 shares Max Life)
      • Life insurance business to be demerges into HDFC Life ( 1 Share MFS to get 2.33 shares of HDFC Life)
      • In a nut shell,if you own 500 shares of Max life today, you would get 233  - as onof HDFC Life by end of 2017.
  • HDFC Life
    • AUM : Rs.74247 – as on March 2016
    • Total premium collected in FY 2016 : Rs.16313
  • HDFC Life + Max Life : market share : 10.80%

Those investors who are comfortable with the complexity of share swap and patience to hold for say 2 years plus can consider these stocks in their portfolio.

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