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Growth Normalizes After Strong April

Mixed Ind. APE growth across players: Private players saw healthy individual APE growth in May’26 (12.4% YoY vs. 21.8%/7.8% in Apr’26/Mar’26). Within our coverage, Axis Max Life beat industry growth at 15.7% YoY, whereas SBI Life (+7.7% YoY), IPRU Life (+6.1% YoY) and HDFC Life (+6.0% YoY) recorded sluggish growth. Other private players like Bajaj Life, Aditya Birla Sun Life and Tata AIA reported stronger volume growth at 18.6%/ 15.5%/ 10.4% YoY respectively. In May’26, the industry grew 13.3% YoY with LIC performing better than private players (+15.5% YoY). Expect growth in the protection and PAR segment to continue; recovery in credit protect to aid volumes. High volatility/ competitive intensity in ULIP/ NPAR segment likely to be a dampener over the nearterm.

Group business volumes shrink in May:

Industry witnessed a de-growth in group APE (- 9.3% YoY) with private insurers and LIC reporting -4.9% and -10.6% YoY respectively. SBI Life and HDFC Life registered a decline in growth by 35.9% and 27.3% YoY while Axis Max Life and IPRU Life reported a surge in volumes of 40.0%/ 19.8% YoY respectively.

Market share for private players sees an uptrend:

Among private insurers, SBI Life has maintained its market leadership position at 15.1% share in individual APE, while HDFC Life/Axis Max Life/IPRU Life’s market share stood at 11.6%/ 7.1%/ 5.9%. Overall, the private sector’s market share increased to 69.0% (vs. 66.9% in Apr’26), while LIC’s share decreased to 31.0% (vs. 33.1% in Apr’26).

New business volumes decline:

Growth in new business premium (NBP) for private players was weak at 7.7% YoY (vs. 40.9%/ 32.7% YoY in Apr’26/Mar’26). Within our coverage, IPRU Life posted highest growth (+13.9% YoY), followed by Axis Max Life at 12.9% YoY. HDFC Life/ SBI Life saw a de-growth of 14.7%/9.6% YoY while LIC grew 3.5% YoY, resulting in overall industry NBP growth of 5.1% YoY.

Prefer MAXF among private life insurers:

In our coverage universe, Axis Max Life has delivered a strong APE growth of 15.7% YoY in May’26 (17.9% in YTDFY27). As the drag from impact of GST neutralizes in FY27, VNB margin is expected to improve supported by a favorable product mix. Reiterate BUY on MAXF (TP of INR 2,075 at 1.9x FY28E P/EV).

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