Private insurer ICICI Lombard General Insurance shares declined over 7 per cent to touch a day’s low of Rs 1319 per share on the BSE in the intraday trade on Thursday, as the profit for the third quarter of the financial year 2021-22 slipped as well as retail health insurance losses went up sequentially. 

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The company’s profit declined by 29 per cent quarter-on-quarter basis to Rs 317.5 crore, while on the Year-on-Year basis the profit grew by merely 1 per cent. The decline in profit is mainly due to underwriting loss incurred by the company during the quarter.  

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Similarly, the company’s revenue gained by 1 per cent QoQ to Rs 3854 crore, and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) also slumped by 40 per cent sequentially to Rs 273 crore and margins fell to 7.1 per cent from 12 per cent in the previous quarter. 

ICICI Lombard’s earnings per share stood Rs 6.47 versus Rs 9.11 in the previous quarter, while solvency ratio stood at 2.45 as compared to 2.49, which is higher than minimum regulatory requirement that is 1.5. 

The stock at around 01:20 pm recovered and is trading over 3 per cent lower to Rs 1377.15 per share on the BSE, as compared to 1.02 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. 

The stock in the last one year has underperformed the markets, by falling almost 8 per cent as compared to 23 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. Similarly, it fell by almost 7 per cent as against 15 per cent rise in the frontline index on the BSE. 

Global brokerage firm Morgan Stanley maintains Overweight on ICICI Lombard on the back of business growth and positive outlook. It sets a price target of Rs 1900 per share. The company reported underwriting as well as overall profit in-line with brokerage estimates. 

Morgan Stanley said, the loss ratios improved across most product segments and motor OD deteriorated owing to normalisation.