Life Insurance Corporation of India on Friday reported a more than 11-fold jump in second-quarter profit as the country’s largest insurer moved 142.72 billion rupees into its shareholders’ fund to shore up its net worth. Profit after tax rose to 159.52 billion Indian rupees ($1.98 billion) in the three months ended Sept. 30 from 14.34 billion rupees a year earlier.
LIC said it transferred 142.72 billion rupees from its non-participating fund to the shareholders’ fund. Sources reported last month that the insurer plans to transfer nearly $22 billion of policyholders’ funds to a fund designed to pay dividends or issue bonus shares. LIC’s other income also surged after the insurer posted a profit of 66.27 billion rupees as interest on income tax refunds for the previous financial years.
Net premium income rose more than 26% to 1.32 trillion rupees, the company said in a stock exchange filing. LIC, which went public in May after a record $2.7 billion share sale, has seen shares fall more than 28% from a listing price of 872 rupees.
