LIC's September-Quarter Standalone Profit Rises 20% to ₹12,076 Crore as Net Premium Income Climbs 16% to ₹1.47 Lakh Crore, With First-Half Value of New Business Up 34% and a Net Margin of 22.3%

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) announced its financial results for the quarter and half-year ended September 30, 2026, which is the second quarter of the financial year 2026-27, in the first week of November 2026. This article is based on a report published by the Free Press Journal and updated on November 5, 2026, which gives the company's unaudited standalone figures. The report does not state the exact date of the board meeting, and this article has not reviewed LIC's own exchange filing, so readers who need exact figures should check that filing. Amounts are in Indian rupees, with one crore equal to ten million and one lakh crore equal to one trillion.

Profit: strong year on year, lower than the previous quarter

Standalone net profit for the quarter was ₹12,076.02 crore, up 20.1% from ₹10,053.39 crore in the same quarter of the previous year. Profit before tax was ₹12,125.82 crore against ₹10,146.97 crore. The report also notes that net profit was 10.5% lower than the ₹13,492.03 crore reported for the June quarter. For the half-year, standalone net profit was ₹25,568.05 crore, up 21.5% from ₹21,039.90 crore. The half-year figure equals the sum of the two quarters, and the percentage changes match the reported amounts, as checked here.

Other outlets have reported the quarterly profit as about ₹12,115 crore, a slightly different number from the ₹12,076 crore in this report. The article does not say why they differ, and this article uses the figure in the report it cites.

Premium income

Net premium income for the quarter was ₹1,47,018.18 crore, up 16.2% from ₹1,26,479.26 crore and up 15.5% from the June quarter. A headline that says "premium income rises 16%" refers to this quarterly figure. For the half-year, total premium income was ₹2,74,269 crore, up 11.6%, which is slower growth. Subtracting the second quarter from the half-year total gives about ₹1,27,251 crore for the first quarter, calculated here, which is consistent with the 15.5% sequential rise. It also implies slower growth in the first quarter than in the second, although the net and total premium measures may not be defined identically.

By product line, the report gives individual new business premium of ₹32,725 crore, up 14.9%, and group premium of ₹1,13,594 crore, up 19.6%. The report places these under the half-year heading but does not explicitly confirm the period, and their sum of about ₹1.46 lakh crore is close to the second-quarter net premium, so readers should confirm the period in LIC's filing before relying on them. The report also gives the number of individual policies sold as 70.97 lakh, down 2.25%. The count of policies fell while individual new business premium rose, but the two measures may cover different periods, so this article does not draw a conclusion from the contrast. LIC's share of first-year premium income for the half-year was 58.77%.

Investment income

Net investment income from policyholders' funds was ₹1,14,983.77 crore, up from ₹1,12,147.16 crore, a rise of about 2.5% calculated here. The report does not give total income, so the combined effect of premiums and investments on revenue cannot be stated from this source.

Value of new business and margins

For the first half of the financial year, LIC reported a value of new business (VNB) of ₹6,846 crore, up 34% from ₹5,111 crore. VNB is an actuarial estimate of the value created by policies sold in the period. The net VNB margin was 22.3%, up 470 basis points from 17.6%. A basis point is one hundredth of a percentage point, so 470 basis points is 4.7 percentage points. The overall expense ratio improved to 10.41% from 11.28%. The report does not explain what drove the margin change, such as product mix or pricing, and this article does not speculate.

Solvency and assets

The solvency ratio was 2.35, up from 2.13. The solvency ratio compares an insurer's available capital with the regulatory requirement, and the regulatory requirement for Indian insurers is a ratio of 1.5. Assets under management were ₹59.61 lakh crore, up 4.2%. The report does not state the period to which the solvency and asset figures relate, so they should be read as the latest figures reported with the results.

Other points in the report

LIC will adopt Indian Accounting Standards from April 1, 2027, subject to regulatory approval for a one-year deferment. The report also says Naga Nalini Kalluri was appointed Chief Compliance Officer with effect from November 6, 2026. It does not mention a dividend or the share price reaction, so this article does not report either.

How to read the results

Four cautions apply. First, the figures are unaudited. Second, year-on-year growth in profit of 20% sits beside a sequential fall of 10.5%, so the answer to whether profit is rising depends on which comparison is used. Third, premium growth is much higher in the quarter than in the half-year. Fourth, the margin and VNB figures are for the half-year and cannot be compared directly with the quarterly profit.

What to watch

The main measures to follow are whether the net VNB margin stays above the 22.3% reported for the half-year, how the solvency ratio develops, and what LIC says about the accounting-standards transition. This article is a summary of reported figures and is not investment advice.