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According to the latest Insurance report from Emkay Global Financial Services, the private life insurance industry clocked a robust 19.8% YoY Retail APE growth in Oct-23, on a favorable base of Oct-22 (up almost 3% YoY, owing to Diwali holidays). Owing to the stronger base of Nov-22 and Diwali festivities this year coming in November, Emkay Global Financial Services expects some slowdown in growth during Nov-23.

With private players continuing to log robust growth momentum, the life insurance industry is expected to deliver a high single-digit retail APE growth in FY24; estimated APE growth for private sector: ~12-13%, LIC: low single-digit. This is owing to growth slackening in Mar-24 on account of preponed buying of high-ticket non-linked policies in Mar-23.

Based on 12-month rolling RWRP YoY growth, MAX Life surpasses HDFC Life as the fastest growing Life Insurer among peers. Among Listed Private Life Insurers, MAXF reported a strong 37.6% YoY Retail APE growth during Oct-23, while HDFC Life and SBI Life reported a decent show—16.5% YoY and 16.4% YoY Retail APE growth, respectively.

Max Life reported strong 53.5% growth in the Number of Policies sold during Oct-23 driven by new product launches.

With stock price increase of 28%, MAX Financial also emerged as the top performer over the past year amongst its listed insurance peers.

The sustained growth delivery by private life insurers addresses the exaggerated concerns on growth post taxation changes on high-ticket non-linked products. With the margin compression story already having played out in FY24, private life insurers are on track to deliver robust VNB growth in FY25 & beyond.

Given the recent performance of life insurance stocks, valuations in the sector remain attractive. Emkay Global Financial Services preference order for private listed life insurance players is: SBILIFE, HDFCLIFE, MAXF and IPRU.

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