Insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation of India’s (LIC) shares rose 4.38% on Friday’s early trades, in an otherwise weak market after the company reported a multifold rise in its net profit for the October-December quarter of 2022. Its shares reached an intraday high of ₹ 640.00 apiece and were trading at ₹ 622.55 apiece at 11:49 AM on Friday.
The company’s profit after tax and before extraordinary items for the October to December quarter of 2022 (Q3FY23) came in at ₹ 8348.71 crores, indicating an increase of a whopping 3851.30% against ₹ 211.29 crores reported in the corresponding quarter last year (Q3FY22).
LIC reported a net premium income of ₹ 1,11,787.6 crores in the latest quarter, indicating an increase of 14.51% against ₹ 97,620.34 crores in the corresponding quarter last year.
According to a regulatory filing, its income from investments rose to ₹ 84,889 crore from ₹ 76,574.24 crores a year ago.
Its investments in the Adani Group have been under severe criticism. However, they are still in the green, even though the share price of the companies has nose-dived by almost 60% since January 25, 2023, after US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations against the group. It said that the companies manage and manipulate share prices, run offshore shell companies for round-tripping and are lacking in corporate governance practices.
“Though our investor team has already sought clarifications from the Adanis, our top management could not contact them yet as we have been busy preparing the results. We are soon going to call them to meet us and explain. We want to understand what is happening in the market and in the group,” said M R Kumar, Chairman, LIC.
LIC is India’s largest institutional investor and the second-largest shareholder in most of the listed Adani group companies. It has a cumulative investment of ₹ 36,474.78 crore as of January 27, which in percentage terms is 4.23 per cent of the total public holding in those companies. But for LIC’s ₹44.76 lakh crore investment asset under management, this is only 0.97 per cent.
Written by Simran Bafna
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