ICICI Prudential Life Q2 Results: Profit Up 25% to ₹374 Crore, APE Rises 15.6%

ICICI Prudential Life Q2 results had profit running ahead of premiums. The insurer, now renamed ICICI Life Insurance Limited (its NSE code is still ICICIPRULI), posted standalone profit after tax of ₹374.22 crore for July-September 2026 (Q2 FY27). That is 25% higher than the ₹299.26 crore of a year ago, according to its October 13 board-meeting outcome filed with NSE. The stock fell anyway. Our stock market today India hub has the rest of that session.

ICICI Prudential Life Q2 results: the numbers that matter

Here is Q2 FY27, taken from the filing and the company’s investor presentation:

• Profit after tax: ₹374.22 crore, up 25% YoY, but about 3% lower than the ₹386.18 crore of Q1 FY27 (QoQ).
• Premium earned (gross): ₹14,255 crore, roughly 16% above last year’s ₹12,297 crore and 39% above Q1’s ₹10,251 crore (QoQ). After reinsurance, net premium earned grew about 16.6% YoY to ₹13,804 crore.
• Annualised premium equivalent (APE): ₹2,799 crore, up 15.6% YoY. Retail APE grew 10.7% to ₹2,221 crore, and group APE jumped 39.6% to ₹578 crore.
• Product mix (Q2 APE growth, YoY): protection +33.7%, annuity +65.5%, linked savings +6.7%, non-linked savings −0.6%.
• Value of new business (VNB): roughly ₹712 crore for the quarter. We get that by taking H1 VNB of ₹1,283 crore and subtracting the ₹571 crore reported for Q1. On that basis the Q2 VNB margin (VNB divided by APE) works out to about 25.4%.

According to CNBC-TV18, Q2 VNB came in below its poll estimate of ₹722 crore and the margin missed the poll’s 25.79%. APE was in line.

Six months in: margin up 150 bps

The press release has these numbers for April-September 2026 (H1 FY27):

• PAT of ₹760 crore, up 26.5% YoY from ₹601 crore. The company credited this mostly to higher shareholders’ investment income and a better surplus from its in-force book.
• VNB of ₹1,283 crore, up 22.3% YoY, with the VNB margin moving to 26.0% from 24.5% in H1 FY26. That’s a 150 basis point gain.
• APE of ₹4,935 crore (+15.1% YoY), new business premium of ₹11,821 crore (+25.0%) and total premium of ₹24,505 crore (+15.3%).
• Protection APE of ₹1,155 crore (+39.5%), retail protection APE of ₹455 crore (+47.2%) and annuity APE of ₹324 crore (+50.0%).
• Embedded value of ₹56,669 crore at September 30 (+12.2% YoY), a solvency ratio of 229.9% against the 150% regulatory minimum, 13th-month persistency of 84.5% and AUM of ₹3.29 lakh crore (+2.3%).

On costs, it depends which ratio you look at. Excluding GST, the cost-to-premium ratio dropped 30 bps to 18.3%. Including GST, it went up 80 bps to 20.0%. The company said part of the rise in operating expenses came from GST costs, after input tax credit on retail business was disallowed.

Why the stock slipped, and a new CEO

The stock closed at ₹447 on October 13, NSE data show, down 3.54% from ₹463.40, after a day low of ₹446.30. That red close came on a day the Sensex gained 1,109.10 points, or 1.54%, to 73,033.78, according to BusinessLine. Financial Express pointed out the shares were already down about 18% over six months.

That evening the company informed exchanges that IRDAI had cleared Sidharatha Mishra, its chief operating officer, as managing director and CEO for five years from October 14, 2026. Shareholders still have to approve it.

Our read on the quarter

Protection and annuity products are clearly lifting margins, and retail savings growth is still slow. The stock dropped in spite of 25% profit growth, on the same day CNBC-TV18 flagged the Q2 VNB miss. That isn’t as odd as it looks. The company’s own glossary calls VNB the measure of profitability on new business, a bit like a profit margin, so investors watch it next to reported PAT. Our guide on how to analyse quarterly results of a company explains why. HDFC Life, which reports on October 15, is next. Its VNB margin and protection growth will tell us if ICICI’s trend runs across the sector.