SBI Life Insurance joins Rs 1-trillion m- cap club, stock hits record high

SBI Life Insurance Company today entered the coveted Rs 1 trillion market capitalisation (market-cap) club after its share price hit a fresh all-time high on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The stock of the life insurance company hit a new high of Rs 1,012 on Wednesday in the intra-day deal.

Following the uptick in the counter, SBI Life’s market cap crossed Rs 1-trillion mark or Rs 1,01,200 crore in intra-day trade today.

In the past six trading sessions, the stock has rallied 22 per cent after the company reported healthy earnings in July-September quarter (Q2FY20). In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 2 per cent during the same period.

SBI Life reported a strong growth of 33.3 per cent year on year (YoY) and 17.5 per cent YoY in gross written premium (GWP) and new business annualized premium equivalent (APE), respectively in Q2FY20 led by focus on protection, annuity and individual non-par savings business. Renewals registered 33.2 per cent growth YoY.

“SBI Life is the largest private sector insurer with around 13 per cent market share. Considering its strong distribution network in both the agent (around 125K persons) and bancassurance channel (SBI: around 24K branches), ULIP, which accounted for 53 per cent of FY19 first year premium, is likely to benefit from cost efficiencies/operating leverage with rising scale. Additionally, enterprise value (EV) growth could accelerate as the company is targeting to improve its protection sales contribution, which should enhance the NBV product margin (FY18 NBV/annualized premium: 17.7 per cent vs. Peers: 17-26 per cent) as well,” analyst at JP Morgan said in a results update.

The brokerage firm has ‘overweight’ rating on SBI Life given the strong growth potential from leveraging the bank’s distribution reach, conservative balance sheet and improving product mix.

“Going forward, the insurer is well positioned to deliver 27 per cent NBV CAGR over FY19-21E with RoEVs touching 20 per cent by FY21E by leveraging its significant brand equity, an expansive multi-channel distribution network, cost leadership and access to parent’s huge client base,” analysts at JM Financial Institutional Securities said in a results update. The stock is, however, trading above the brokerages target price of Rs 1,000 and Rs 910 per share, respectively.

Besides, in a note on Tuesday, Morgan Stanley said SBI Life could be among the three stocks that could be included in the MSCI India index.

Thus far in the financial year 2019-20, SBI Life has zoomed 74 per cent, as against a per cent gain in the S&P BSE Sensex. At 12:42 pm, the stock was trading 1 per cent higher at Rs 998, with market-cap of Rs 99,805 crore, the BSE data shows.