India's SBI Life reports 45% rise in Q1 profit on higher premiums

BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's SBI Life Insurance Co reported a 45% surge in its first-quarter profit on Tuesday, aided by higher income from premiums.

SBI Life, one of India's largest life insurers, said its profit after tax for the quarter ended June 30 rose to 3.81 billion rupees ($46.53 million) from 2.63 billion rupees, a year earlier.

Net premium income rose nearly 19% to 131.04 billion rupees, the Mumbai-based company said in an exchange filing.

Industry sales of policies dropped year-on-year for each of the three months in the quarter, following the central government's proposal to withdraw tax incentives on insurance policies from April, but narrowed sequentially, data from the insurance regulatory body showed.

SBI Life's rivals ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and HDFC Life Insurance also reported double-digit growth in their Q1 profit earlier this month.

The company's value of new business, which measures expected profit from new premiums and is a key gauge for growth, rose to 8.7 billion rupees in the June quarter, while assets under management (AUM) stood at 3.3 trillion rupees.

Separately, the insurer said it has approved the appointment of Amit Jhingran as the managing director and chief executive officer, although the date of his taking charge has not been decided.

Shares of the company closed lower at 1.2% ahead of results.

($1 = 81.8834 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; editing by Eileen Soreng)