Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q1 FY 2026 Earnings Call of Go Digit General Insurance Company Limited, hosted by ICICI Securities Limited. As a reminder, participants are in listen-only mode until there is an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please contact the operator by pressing star and zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Anshuman Dey from ICICI Securities Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of ICICI Securities, we welcome you all to Q1 FY 2026 conference call of Go Digit General Insurance. I now hand over the call to Chairman Kamesh Goyal. Over to you, sir.
Thanks, Anshuman. Good evening, everyone. I have with me our CEO, Jasleen Kohli, CFO, Ravi Khetan, Head of Investor Relations, Piyush, and Divya, who is also part of Piyush's team. We'll just make some opening remarks and then go slide by slide. Our profit before tax has increased from INR 101 crore to INR 161 crore this year. This year, as we had mentioned last year, this year we expect to basically compensate for all accumulated losses, so we'll be paying tax. Our assumption is that this year the current tax rate we are expecting will be about 13.9% for the whole year. So our PAT has been calculated based on that. So 161 is the PBT, and after a tax rate of 13.9%, the PAT would be INR 138 crores. This is the first time the PAT and PBT is different.
ROE on the PAT basis is 3.4% this year compared to 3.3% in last year's same quarter. This obviously is not annualized. Last year, our average net worth was about INR 3,100 crores, which this year is INR 4,100 crores. Almost 33% increase in the net worth at a rate of 13.9%. ROE has slightly improved to 3.4%. Our net worth compared to March 2025, which was about INR 4,033 crores, has also increased to INR 4,173 crores. AUM over the last one year has increased significantly by roughly INR 3,100 crores. Now the AUM are around INR 20,861 crores. Solvency continues to be very strong at 227%. Now, moving on to the slide, if you look at our deck, it's more like a dashboard which we give. Payment figures, market shares, portfolio mix, number of customers have increased to now INR 7.1 crores. Distribution part to our partner network has also increased.
Assets under management have already spoken, and customer satisfaction score continues to be quite good. Now, moving to the next slide, which is slide number five here. I think if you look at our loss ratios, last year for the whole year was about 72.8%. Quarter one last year was 70.5%, and this year the loss ratio is 70.5%. One major area which I think I should discuss right now is the retention ratio. This year has reduced to 65.4% compared to 76.2%. And this obviously is making our combined ratio higher in terms of EBIT combined ratio. Economically, it actually hasn't made any change, but because net earned premium has gone down, because of that, the combined ratio looks up. Why net retention ratio has gone down this year is primarily two reasons.
One is that last year we had looked when we looked at the last quarter of our book. We felt that some of the business which we had retained, we should increase the cession a bit. The impact of that has come in the first quarter. Secondly, you will see that our growth in the Fire business has been very strong in the first quarter. We also got leadership and very high shares in a lot of [audio distortion] corporate accounts. Looking at what is happening in the market, especially again in the first quarter, industry saw a Fire loss of INR 2,000 crore. Digit was participating in that. Looking at some large positions, we felt that it is better for us to not retain this in the first quarter and largely reinsure so that our TP overall and our own net retention gets diversified and gets balanced out.
The second reason is that our growth in two-wheeler business has. When you sell new two-wheelers, as we had also explained in February in our Analyst Day, this obviously has a very major impact because the premium earning is only for first year, while the commission outgo is accounted for the whole five years. So because of that, the net retention has been a bit lower. Last year, we had kept our retention to about 15% last year in the Fire, Marine, Engineering, and Liability business. This year, that retention has become 9%. If we had actually kept that retention same as last year, 15%, then our combined ratio without 1/n would have been 105.2%, which would have been an improvement over last year.
As we go forward, because most of the large accounts in India return on 1st of April, we actually expect our retentions in corporate business to also come definitely close to last year, and maybe Fire business, etc., depending upon how retail portfolio looks at, it could be slightly higher, so this low retention was more or less, I would say, one quarter impact. As I said, also, it has not impacted the profitability. As you can see, profitability continues to be good, but optically, it makes your combined ratio look worse. Loss ratio, I think there was some discussion last quarter about loss ratios. I'll cover the loss ratios also in a bit more detail. When we look at overall expenses to GWP, they have increased this year from last year was 31.4%, 30.9%, and this year it has increased to 31.4%.
This primarily is due to two-wheeler business because in Motor, we have grown well in the first quarter compared to last year. So despite growing a lot more in corporate lines, our expense ratio has increased due to two-wheeler. We continue to ride two-wheeler business as much as possible because the business we feel is profitable. And secondly, it also gives us a decent amount of AUM, which stays with the company for much longer. Moving forward, sorry, can we go back to this slide? ROE, etc., I've already covered solvency ratio, so nothing much to cover here. We can go to the next slide. I think when we look at the GWP growth, growth has been, I would say, for us, about 12.1%. And if we move 1/n , then the growth is 14.5%.
As all of us know, last year in the first half, there was no 1/n. So I think in the first two quarters, this difference will come from 1st of October. Then one can look at growth rate on the same basis. Overall, when we look at the growth rate in own damage, our growth rate is similar to the industry. One of the main, I think, developments in the market in the first quarter has been that there has not been any new vehicle sales, actually in cars, especially, which drives own damage premium, has been a bit down. In TP, we have grown better than the industry. And then Health and Travel, etc., our growth rate has been less. This, again, is primarily driven by employer-employee segment, where we in April, we saw companies being very aggressive. But this is off and on.
I would say this is more like a volatile business, difficult for us to say what has happened in the coming quarter. But one distinct trend which we saw this quarter is that companies which were, especially private companies, you might recall last year had said that private companies were actually taking market share in group health business away from public sector. I think the companies who did that last year, this year, they are definitely not taking the market share. In fact, they are degrowing. So based on where the market is, our sense is that there has to some sense has to come in the group health business because companies, whichever way to ride that business for six months or one year, they don't follow that. So my sense is we would see almost all companies getting covered in this calm.
Hopefully, some discipline will come as we go towards the second half. As I said, the property business, we have seen very strong growth. Our growth rate has been 40% compared to industry 17%. In others, also, we have grown by 23%. In this case, others would be Marine, Liability, etc., where also we have seen very strong growth. Growth in the corporate line of business, as we had expected, continues to be strong. We had also on 1st of April increased capacities of our TPs. Direct corporate team is also now fairly stable, and we have presence all over India. I think corporate business, as I said, is something which is doing well. Moving on in terms of within the GWP, if I have to give maybe a few more highlights, industry's OD/TP mix this year is 41 OD, TP is 59.
For Digit, it is 37 OD and 63 TP. So broadly, there's not much difference now in the mix. We hope that private car business will actually pick up as we get into the festival season. Our mix within motor is 41% private car, 31% two-wheeler, and commercial vehicle is 28%. So when you look at actually each of these segments, we would be a large player across each of these segments. And I think as a percentage of premium, total premium in motor, I think 31% in two-wheeler would probably be amongst the highest or maybe the highest in the industry. We don't know figures for all. But based on where we are, we feel that that probably will be our position. Motor share also has increased this year in the first quarter, or it is similar to the first quarter overall.
TP, we have seen increase, while OD, we have actually been more or less flat. Moving further in terms of profits and combined ratio, I think if you look at, we already said that this year we are paying taxes of INR 22 crores. Overall, profit has increased. Without 1/n , the combined ratio would have been 107.5% compared to last year of 105.4%, which was also without 1/n . As I already mentioned, if we would have kept the same retention as last year, our combined ratio would have been 105.1%. So overall, but this has no impact on the profit. This is more optical from that perspective. And for some of the people, I just want to remind that we had covered how this IGAAP combined ratio, which is calculated, actually is not really logical.
We had covered that in a bit of detail with examples on 17th of February meeting in the Stern Analyst meeting. Going to the next slide, slide number eight, I think this is assets under management. As you can see, that our AUM has grown well. Leverage, which was 4.8 as of quarter one last year, became 4.9 for the whole year 2024, 2025, has increased now slightly to 5. In terms of investment income of INR 372 crores, there is a capital gain of INR 10.2 crores. Excluding that capital gain, which anyway is small, the yield is 1.8. So I think our fixed income yield continues to be decent because we had gone with a higher duration last year. So that seems good. Moving on, I think one difference compared to 31st March 2025 and first quarter is in equity.
Our AUM has grown, but Equity allocation from 6.4% is now only 6.3%. We haven't really increased that to keep up the pace. AT1 Bonds also have reduced slightly because the supply of new AT1 Bonds has been a bit less. And overall, government securities percentage has also slightly reduced because we were trying to very slowly reduce the duration. Sector-wise exposure, etc., is given nothing major here. Quality of fixed income portfolio continues to be very, very strong. Loss ratios in own damage, if you remember, quarter four Own Damage loss ratio was, I think, if I remember correctly, above 70%. The year ended at 67.8%, and quarter one is 69.3%. You would have seen some companies which have declared results that own damage loss ratio has gone up slightly for the industry.
I think we'll wait and see whether this is happening due to low premium rates in the industry or something else. In case of Digit, whenever we write comprehensive policies, we look at own damage and third party together. When it is standalone own damage policy, then obviously we look at ROE from a standalone own damage perspective. Our Third Party loss ratio is 66%, which is very similar to what it was last year, first quarter, and also similar to the whole year. In terms of absolute amount, the reserve release this quarter is actually the same as last year. So there has not been any change in the reserve release. So it is the same in both. And I want to specifically mention this because my question anyway comes on this.
Health, I think if you recall last year, we have continued to see improvement in our Health loss ratio. And even compared to first quarter last year, our Health loss ratio has improved. Our proportion of retail Health in our total Health portfolio is less than 10%. As you know, most of our business is group. If you actually take any company and take their loss ratios for retail and group, you'll find us in maybe the best in class or in the top quartile or top 10% in terms of Health loss ratios. So I think this is something which is encouraging. And as in when we see opportunities of pricing discipline coming, I think it's an area which we would ideally want to grow. Fire loss ratios are similar. This year, we have seen some flood gains in the first quarter, which normally is the summer season.
Flood season is now, but overall, things are fine in Fire and all other lines of business, and as I said earlier, our loss ratio in this quarter is similar to what it was last year, 70.3% this year compared to 70.5% last year. Going further, that was the last slide. I think we always cover IFRS slide. And here, I would want to make, I would say, two, three comments here on the IFRS results. One is that if you notice this time, we have actually mentioned the discount rate which we take. In the notes, if you look at point number one, discount rates which we take and the discount rates are basically the risk-free rate for each year on which you basically discount your liabilities.
Since the interest rates have gone down this year, the discount rate used this year is 6.3, which last year, which as of March was 6.8. It basically means as you increase your reserves, as you reduce your discount, your reserve liabilities actually go up. So discounting impact has become negative this year, INR 44 crores. But if you look at it on the unrealized gains on investment, because interest rates have gone down, your unrealized gains would have actually gone up. As we have always said that in IFRS results, the way we look at it is to basically look at profit before tax as per IGAAP. We add the full acquisition cost to this because this is like a profit which will materialize coming year. And then we divide it by 25% tax completely and then divide it by net worth.
So that is how we look at IFRS results. But on the basis of IFRS 17, the ROE and all this is on a fully taxed basis has increased to 4.8% for the quarter. And this again is non-annualized. And I think after the call, etc., if people feel that there's something else you would want us to know about IFRS results, please reach out to us. And our investor relations department will be more than happy to give more disclosures to IFRS. And this time, again, the suggestion came from one of the analysts that people don't understand what the discount date, etc. is. So we decided to declare this. We would want to be as transparent as possible for IFRS 17. So please do reach out. We'll be more than happy to give any kind of disclosure of IFRS results.
And as you know, end of the year, we actually get our IFRS results also audited by the same auditors. Every quarter, we don't get it audited. It is essentially management certified. So that's why I wanted to say the rest of the notes on triangle, etc., is what you saw last time. So there's really nothing new. They are only done on a once-in-a-year basis. So with that, I think happy to answer any questions which you may have. Thank you for listening patiently.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchscreen telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Avinash Singh from Emkay Global . Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Good evening. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on reinsurance and retention that we've explained in detail, yet I needed some clarification because the 65% retention, I mean, is pretty kind of low. And particularly in your context, because traditionally you have been highlighting your strategy is to retain more, I mean, because you have the understanding of risk and you have capital. This is going down. And even if you were to kind of consider that, okay, nearly 20% of Fire is almost totally kind of ceded, yet it seems that retention has gone down or retention has gone higher in other segments. And on net, I mean, in this case of that higher reinsurance, typically one would have expected the commission expenses to be lower. But the commission expenses are still staying higher.
So if you can sort of try to explain has commissions gone higher in certain segments, or how are you sort of accounting the involved commission, I mean, adjacent commissions. So basically, the higher reinsurance, its impact on commissions and how sort of are you accounting. And particularly, have you changed kind of retention in Motor OD and TP? So this is basically question number one. Second, in more on sort of a strategy, I mean, of course, Motor TP you have been writing profitably, but at the same time, because of no price hike and all, you have been kind of also voicing that now kind of with the claim inflation continuing, the kind of the prices are getting gradually inadequate in many lines, not all, but in many lines. But now you have kind of accelerated writing of Motor TP. And again, we have seen no price hike.
Yet, I mean, your claims ratio is increasing, but not typically what I would say such a claim inflation with over 8%-9% kind of a thing in Motor. Yet, I mean, without price hike, your claims ratio increased, at least at this point looks lower. What sort of a strategy on Motor TP that's working right now? These are my two questions. Thank you.
Thanks, Avinash. So first of all, there is no cession to reinsurers in Motor. As I explained earlier, the commission ratio has increased essentially due to increase in two-wheelers business. As you know, and you can see our 17th of February 2025 where we have shown how increase in two-wheeler business impacts your expense ratio because five-year premium, the premium earning in the first quarter is very little, while the expense of five-year commission gets expensed out. So if you look at that 17th February 2025 example, you'll be able to see what impact it has. And I have also explained that our two-wheeler component in overall motor business has increased to 31%. So that is one commission. Our strategy on retention continues to be what it is, which basically is to keep increasing retention over a period of time.
Now, what has happened, as I explained to you, that if there was a INR 2,000 crore claim of Fire business in the first quarter, in 2023-2024, we had also received that claim amount. Now, I don't remember the exact, but in 2023-2024, we had also received a claim of about INR 400 crores, where we had, I think, 50% share. Our Fire premium was almost INR 800 crores that year. And as per 50%, so means INR 2,200 crores. One claim took 25% of our gross Fire premium. So when we write corporate business and large risk, our objective is that one or two very large losses should not lead to burning of the TP. You have to ensure that your TP continues to be profitable.
Because of this, and as I already explained, that in the first quarter, the fact that we grew by 40% and the first quarter is essentially about large corporate business, we got some very good and large shares as leaders and otherwise in large corporate accounts. We felt that it makes sense for us to retain that business as the year passes by. The corporate business will reduce and more and more retail business will actually come up, which is where we will have a higher cession. There has been no change in strategy. It is a first quarter. You may want to look at, Avinash. You track the sector very closely. How many companies will have been able to increase the Fire business by 40%?
This will give you an indication that when large corporate business happens and you grow so fast, how do you diversify your book also becomes interesting. As for the TP, I think I've already said that our loss ratio is the same as last year, and in terms of absolute reserve release, there is actually no difference. It's exactly the same amount as first quarter last year, which we have for first quarter this year. So, reserve release is not which has reduced our loss ratio. Lastly, I think everyone knows in the market, if we go back to January to March 2024, when we were actually doing the pre-IPO meetings, at that time, we had reduced Third Party market share quite a lot. Now, again, last year, if you look at in the first quarter, our TP market share had actually reduced.
Then, over the period of time, we saw a bit increase in the TP market share. And this year, in the first quarter, we have been able to increase the book. And all this is based on our understanding of what our underwriting guidelines is. What happens in the market, we can't control that. But what we write is based on our understanding. As of now, we have neither relaxed our underwriting guidelines nor made them stricter. We continue to keep looking for opportunities in the TP business. And if we don't see, we actually regrow also in the TP business. But thanks for your question.
Yeah, yeah. A quick follow-up, if I may. Now your group, I mean, has got also the reinsurance license. Now, what is going to be the kind of inward reinsurance strategy at Go Digit? Does it remain unchanged or will now part of, I mean, or rather inward reinsurance will become a smaller portion of your business at Go Digit?
Avinash, we have three different CEOs, three different companies, and three different sets of shareholders. I would expect we had a Board meeting today. I think our Board expects our management team to continue to look for opportunities in inward facultative business because direct companies can only do facultative business. The reinsurance arm will have to focus on what they want to do. Our sense is that reinsurance companies focus more on the TPs. First of all, we don't really see any competition. Secondly, as I said, all three companies are independent, different shareholders, and different CEOs. I would, as I said, have not asked them to say that you should not do this or you should do this because each board will look at what is good for that particular company.
So just to conclude, we don't expect any change in the strategy by Digit General Insurance and how they write business. Value added has what do they do is up to them.
Understood. All the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of [audio distortion] please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. The first question is on the combined ratio. Now, I can't understand that you have indicated the mismatch while you're looking at the IRDAI on the prescribed combined ratio. But even if you look at the combined ratio based on NEP, there has been a sequential increase in the combined ratio. Now, I do understand that's been happening because of the mix. But if I'm looking more medium term, I wanted to understand that how are you looking at reducing this from NEP basis now around 110 to maybe around 105 or lower? What is the strategy and how should we see that play out over the next one, two, or three years? And if you could give us some color on that, that would be helpful.
Now, on the second question, now recently, Avinash has formed or is in the works of forming a 50/50 JV on the reinsurance side with Jio. I wanted to understand that how does that impact some of Go Digit's reinsurance treaties or facilities that we have? And so if you could give us some color on that, that also would be very helpful. Thank you.
Thanks. Maybe let me answer the Allianz-Jio JV, which is happening on the reinsurance side. I think they have informed us when the new team. They have told us that from their perspective, they would want to continue the relationship. And as we discussed in February, March 26, renewal for next year, we will sit with them and discuss. Having said that, our reinsurance arrangement with Allianz as a leader is for three years. Next year would be the third year in this arrangement. Ideally, based on the contract, neither them nor we actually can change anything. Based on what they have told us, our personal assessment is that the reinsurance business would not really change our relationship with them in any manner.
Lastly, I would also say that I think each year and this year, I think, for example, in Fire, we have moved from 19% to 21% in retention. Every year, we plan to increase the retention. So over a period of time, it should not be too far in the future, we should have the highest retention in Fire business. And lead reinsurer would advise me equally to us. So no impact of that as of now. On the combined ratio, I think if you look at on the NEP basis, it has gone up slightly. And again, two reasons. And on Indian combined, because if you look at IFRS, you can actually see our deferred acquisition cost has actually increased from INR 52 crores to INR 107 crores. But in this case, in NEP, why it has increased is one, I already said that our two-wheeler business has increased a lot.
This obviously increases the commission output. Claims have not really changed. You'll see that the management expenses have actually slightly reduced, and secondly, also, though it is only for the first quarter, but a lot of corporate business is written on 1st of April, so when retention is less in the first quarter, that's the impact you've seen of three months in the NEP calculation. Other than that, we have not really seen any real change. Lastly, to a smaller extent, our bank insurance business, which is a dominant business business, has also increased in proportion, which obviously also impacts cost a bit, so overall, this is really the answer to this. As you know, we don't really talk about what the future combined ratio, etc., is, but again, I think you have to really see what the play on the management expenses is.
Commissions, we already said, and I'll maybe repeat. If you look at line-by-line commission ratio, say of Motor of other companies and on 17th of February, we had also declared this, compared to the companies. There's actually not much difference in acquisition cost of different companies. So loss ratio and management expenses is what is more important. And we see our trajectory of two years, three years, whatever you may want to say. Thank you for your question.
Thanks. One follow-up. So we have gained the data from you. So how do you now plan to segregate that or keep that aside?
I think we'll continue to send them the same data because data doesn't have any names. So nobody can identify risk as to which risk we are writing, which we are not underwriting. And as I also said, then maybe I should repeat that in our case, we decide what risk to write, at what rate, etc. Allianz doesn't have any access to any of the data which we do. Secondly, I'll also say this, having worked there for a long, long time, if Allianz will tell us, and they'll be happy to do this in writing, that reinsurance and direct data is not shared. And I know it is not shared. And if somebody signs this as a part of the contract, we would anyway have no concerns. But as of now, we don't share with them any data which is about individual risk and things like that.
Got it.
We are the only company where Allianz reinsurance is a leader. They have been with us from day zero. Our combined ratio has been very good. We probably would be amongst their. I don't have figures for others, but in Asia, we would be the top two or top three most profitable direct players. If I am on their side, I would actually be concerned that how do I retain Digit rather than have been on the Digit side and be worried as to what they would do.
Got it. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prayesh Jain from Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening. Good evening, sir. Just one question on the nexus of the two-wheeler going up. Especially about in the loss ratio of two-wheelers, the car and commercial vehicles in the last two, three years, when various parameters around quality of vehicles going up, quality of roads going better, but on the other hand, the value of the vehicles have gone up, which could lead to higher claim costs. Is it this spectrum if you can understand in between, say, in three years back to today in different categories of goods?
Sure. Your words were a little clear, but I think you want to understand as to how the mix changes leading to the change in the loss ratio. Thanks. If you look at Motor and if you go back five, six years before, Motor was, and some of this I'm now giving not some, I'm giving all these numbers from my memory. It could be a bit up and down here. Motor used to be 75% of our total premium. Last year, Motor reduced to about 57%. Within Motor of 75%, more than 2/3 of the business used to come from commercial vehicles. Now, last year, I think we already said this, that our mix, and this again I'm giving by memory, was within Motor was about 39% or 40% was private car, 29% I think was CV, and about 29% was about two-wheeler.
In the first quarter, as I already mentioned, two-wheeler is 21%, 31%, CV is about 28%, and private car is now the largest, 41%, and within that also, we also spoke about how industry mix is 60% TP and for us, it is 37% and 63%, so there is not really much research. Secondly, I'll say within Motor, we look at overall business, so whereas you have rating policy, we have own TP mix, and we look at loss ratio plus commission ratio at all perspectives, so we only look at a combination of both and then look at what makes sense from a OE perspective. As for other lines of business, I think if you look at last six, seven years on the lines loss ratio, you'll actually see that loss ratio is very steady, and the loss ratio has not matured.
Even if you look at last year with the premium ratio, etc., the loss ratios are okay. Health loss ratios had gone up 2023, 2024, which reduced last year. And as I already said, if you look at our mix of retail and group, we should be among the best companies even on a health loss ratio. So this is something which one has to look at on a continuous basis from our steering perspective. I think predicting loss ratios in future is like predicting the stock market. I think we don't do either. We don't predict either the loss ratios or this. But our focus is to deliver a decent to our shareholders. And you can actually see how we can move fast growth if we see opportunities on a quarter-to-quarter basis and some are in the first quarter.
If opportunity comes in the past years, when nobody would write TP, that we would write a lot of TP. When everyone started writing TP, we let go TP also. So we take our strategy to say we will do this, we'll have this opportunity, we'll go full hog. We don't see an opportunity. And despite all circumstances, we are still able to grow more than the industry.
My second question is on the [audio distortion] Has it come back and do you think that you are starting to be [audio distortion]
Sorry, we've not been able to hear you. As some of you are speaking too close. Your voice is echoing when we are hearing. I don't know if somebody else has a device. You could have the.
Is it better?
No.
So, what I was asking was in the Health segment, you were using back in. In terms of group Health, do you think that this is, or given that the company can next year probably see some selling? How do you see it then?
Honestly, we don't really expect to see much quoting for this business. The day the conversion ratio starts going up, we know there is some improvement in the market in terms of pricing. Our number of quotes we are giving, the premium for which we are quoting, all of that is on an increasing trend. The only trend which is reducing is conversion ratio, and as pricing increases, the conversion ratio automatically improves. And that will be a sign to us that the market is turning, so instead of actually thinking about when will it change and try to predict, we just keep quoting, and whenever market moves, we stop.
But we haven't seen anything in terms of any conversion, right?
As I said, what we have seen, probably no.
All right.
Thank you. From Nidhesh Jain from Investec, please go ahead.
This is an opportunity. The first question is that we retained last quarter. We should have ceded and we ceded that in this quarter. To that, and secondly, where are we ceding the two levels that I think is quite granular and the key pattern on balance sheet? So.
Yeah, so I don't know where did you hear that we have done this. [audio distortion] no change in strategy on that at all. On the other side, I also tried to explain that when I now say a specific example, obviously no name. So basically, we have written, say, a power plant policy also. If it's a power plant, it's okay. Let's say you could have all the machinery and other things. Now, we have seen machinery or turbines are manufactured by one manufacturer in India or from a particular country. Any spare parts, things like that can significantly increase your loss. Claims that went roughly in 2023-2024, our retention was 50%, it was INR 200 crore claim. One claim was equal to 25% of the yearly Fire business. The more experienced, you track.
If portfolio growth was strong, we also have got larger share of the risk. And that in the market, it will be better if we retain less. I also said that going forward, our retention would be last year's retention because overall our retentions have increased by 2%. If retail business proportion increases, then the retention will further go. So this is just one quarter which it is happening. Now, what exactly we see in the waterfall fees, as I said, it's just based on diversification and not taking a concentrated bet on a risk to maximize your reinsurance commission. Because as everyone knows, that our TPs are fairly large in terms of capacities. They are fairly flexible in terms of guidelines, etc.
So the policy has been to try and preserve this flexibility and the size of the TP capacity, which, as I said, I believe among other players any commission.
Second question is limit. So with the line item's figure and strong within two-wheelers, how should we see the EOM limit, which I think we have to comply by the end of this year?
So on the EOM, I have tried to cover this in my first call and repeat some of the things. First of all, I think the intention of reducing the cost of insurance. This has actually gone up instead of going down. The challenge is essentially in each manufacturer. Even if you look at larger companies, almost all of them would have seen a decent increase in their expense management. And you should look at top four companies to see if it probably would be one of those exceptions where the overall expense. The challenge is that present EOM is on overall business. It becomes a side of business. Then the impact of guidelines will be there. As far as Digit is concerned, in the guide [audio distortion] Nidhesh, in the first quarter of first year and second.
Because some of the guidance from post-October, the collection of the duty was also changed. Now, we'll again brief you on how we are going on the EOM on that basis, and on management expenses, we are the industry best. So it's not that we are spending money on ourselves. Commissions are driven more by the market, and as I said, IRDAI, my assessment is IRDAI will not let the present guidelines to be in this shape, which have increased the overall EOM. My sense is two years have happened. They will see what is happening, and they'll take corrective steps to achieve the objective of reducing this. Purely, purely, and we have said this also a million times, management tells the Board that they don't do any business. Talking from my perspective, yes. If it's definitely, and whatever the market comes.
EOM, from a business steering perspective, is not in this shape. Management team is definitely under, I would say, strong guidance of the Board that the management expenses, which is in their hands, should not increase. So that is something which has to be introduced, which where I think, as I said, our management team has demonstrated in the year six, when the EOM guidelines came and the management expenses and equation becomes strict, that our company has the best-in-class management expenses. And EOM includes both.
Yes. Thank you, sir. That's it from my side. Thank you.
Thank you, Nidhesh.
Thank you. The next question is from Dipanjan Ghosh from Citigroup, please.
Hi, sir. Good evening. Just a few questions. If you look at the core lines [audio distortion] channels, and then looking on a more subsegment or sub-channel basis, how are each of these channels performing in a more granular fashion and in the overall commission ratio number across the industry? In any specific product or distribution cohort out there? Second, on the group insurance side of the business, two questions. One, if you can give some color on the piece of business between direct operators and smaller companies, where is the competitive intensity still elevated? And you mentioned on the [audio distortion] just quantify the growth number. Those are all.
Sorry, growth number for what?
For the bank-based business on the bank channel. So Kamesh, I basically was trying to understand the growth in [audio distortion]
Sure, sure. So [audio distortion] are only about 20% of our group business. And growth rate is, I would say, significantly more than the non-employed people. Secondly, on the small corporate and large corporate, we are growing on both, Dipanjan. But retail business is more segmented. It comes every month. We have started seeing decent increase in conversion ratio in retail already from January. But this increase will happen over a period of one year. So as the pricing came within our range or risk appetite, we started seeing significantly higher increase in case of retail property business or retail corporate business. Larger corporate, obviously, is more driven around. As for commissions, etc., I think at a broad level, because even within the motor or retail lines, two-wheeler, commercial vehicle, within commercial vehicle, goods carrying, auto rickshaws, all of that are very different dynamics.
What we can say is that commissions are quite high in motor business when it comes to, say, auto rickshaws, or it comes to school bus, or it comes to, I would even say, goods carrying vehicles up to 2.5 tons. But commissions on comprehensive high-tonnage vehicles, so if you go above 40 tons, comprehensive cover for goods carrying above 40 tons, we have seen a bit of a pullback in that. But you could also have some geography-related issues there. But Dipanjan, all this has been happening for some years already, and this is what the way forward is.
So when we think about the business, whether it is motor or retail non-motor also, especially commercial lines, Fire, Engineering, etc., we obviously try and steer it based on what our preferred risk is, and for each risk, what the expected loss ratio is, and if you add loss ratio plus commission, where you are likely to lead. Now, we have seen some increase in some cases where I think things have started coming within our band, and we have seen growth. And while at the same time, in TP, we have degrown in one or two segments also where market maybe became a bit more aggressive compared to where we are. So there is something which will keep happening. But again, going back by my senses, for three years, there has not been a meaningful increase or [audio distortion]
We have become aggressive in TP business at this stage in 2021 and/or 2022, 2023. My sense is sooner rather than later, as their losses start developing, I would [audio distortion] . Last year, I think, was in TP. And as we go forward, I believe this year, one TP has done it in the first quarter. So as we see some of these trends emerging, my sense is people will start getting and taking corrective action on the TP business also. Exactly when, I have no idea.
So if I can just do one small follow-up. I mean, in the last segment on sub-channels, when the public figures will be out in some time, is it fair to assume that the worldwide basis of commission numbers are marginalizing down?
Gross commission numbers are down.
A sharpish to down?
Not really able to. I think maybe you might have to speak a bit away from the mic or remove you from the speaker, Dipanjan.
So I think that on a wider scale, when it is fair to assume that your gross commission ratio is shifting down?
No, I think you should again see from each line of business. Results will be up soon. My sense is that in Motor, and again, I'm not seeing it live while it's not right now with me. In Motor, it might have increased because of two-wheeler mix, and Dipanjan, again, remember this discussed on 17th of February that two-wheeler typically has the highest commission ratio, then CV, and then private car, so as this mix changes, that also changes, but this again has to be seen in line with the loss ratio. In commercial business, though the premium rate increased compared to last year in Fire, engineering, etc., overall, I would say the commissions won't increase much, 1% here and there, but we have not really seen commission because reinsurance commissions for the industry have been more or less flat.
All the best.
Thanks, Dipanjan.
Thank you.
Maybe one last question, Anshuman.
Okay, sir.
If somebody else has a question?
Yeah. The next question is from the line of Divij Punjabi from Banyan Tree Advisors, please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. I just had two questions. One was on the side of investment philosophy that we have in the equity investments. So I just wanted to understand how we think about equity investments as this has increased as a percentage of overall investment work. And second is, I think in the last quarter, you mentioned that in the commercial lines of other commercial lines of business, we are experimenting in certain new lines. So I just wanted to understand the strategy over there, medium to long term, and if you can just comment on what is driving growth over there.
Okay, Divij, so in investment equity, we feel that taking equity to 10% of the allocation is definitely desirable. And if you see from December 31st, 2024, our Equity allocation, if I remember, often was about 3.4%, 3.5%. This increased to 6.4% as of 31st March. After 31st March in this quarter, assets have EOM has increased, but the allocation has remained more or less stable, so 6.4% and 6.3%. But 10% is something which we definitely want to do. I'd also suggested that what are the pros and cons one will have to look at when you go beyond 10%. And the idea is if you prepare for a stock market, if it drops by 20%, 25%, the losses will pass through your solvency. So if you go above 10%, then you should be prepared to hold a lot more capital to manage volatility.
Beyond 10%, 11%, one will have to look at what the play will be on excess capital which you will hold. This will impact your ROE. Lastly, I think a philosophy on Equity is that Equity is cherry on the cake. It is not the cake for us because we are not nobody is giving us money or capital to run sort of a scheme. What we are trying to do is run an insurance company. If equity and debt have a difference of 5% over 5 or 10 years, and we are at 10%, it can give us some percent additional yield. That is how we look at equity till 10%. Once we reach that number, then obviously, as I said, we'll revisit as to what the capital requirement is and what our expectation is.
But as of now, that is how we want to see our investment philosophy. On the commercial lines, I think right now we are writing Fire, Engineering. Engineering is essentially projects where we are seeing good traction in power projects, a bit on the roads, but not much beyond. The third is Marine, where I said the book is not really growing much. Fourth is Liability. Liability is something which we are growing well in terms of D&O, cyber. Public Liability has become compulsory. There were some changes in the Public Liability Act, a bit on the surety bonds. So this is something which we are already doing on this. So our focus is to really drive this commercial line. Thanks, Divij. We'll take the last question. I think Sanket's message is that he has a question. So we'll take from him as the last question.
Please be in touch then with the investor relations team. We'll be happy to answer any questions that you may have on the results. Sanket, you may want to go ahead.
Thank you. The last question is from the line of Sanket Godha from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
Yeah, just Kamesh, thanks for the opportunity. Kamesh, your OpEx, absolute OpEx, if I see outside commission, it has declined by 10% year- on- year. And I just wanted to check whether there is still juice left over to optimize on the non-comission OpEx view because there is a huge divergence, 12% growth and 19% decline in the OpEx. So I just wanted to understand how much juice is left over and what impact it could have on improvements in the overall combined ratio going ahead. So that's one thing. And the second question I had is on the reinsurance accepted number. If you grew by 47% to [audio distortion] I just wanted to understand the color in which these segments have grown, whether it is the same higher or there are other opportunities to select to move this growth.
Given in second half last year, you had a lot of help in reinsurance acceptance, whether it can [audio distortion] whether those numbers can be repeatable for the full year or not. Those are my two questions.
Thanks, Sanket. On the management expenses, if you look at when the growth is coming due to price hike, so basically in commercial, if you see in Fire business, and I'm just giving a number, the premium rate should have gone up by between 50% to 20%, for example. So your management expenses have actually not increased, but the price increase has happened. This obviously will reduce the management expenses. If the same thing happens in Motor, it will, the same thing will get repeated in Motor also. Whenever the price hike happens, good companies should see reduction in the management expenses. Secondly, I think I'm looking at a CEO also saying this. I think management expenses are already high, so they should reduce it further.
But on the other point, which was relating to reinsurance, etc., etc., what happens is when the premium rates go up. So suppose last year there was a risk with a premium rate of INR 100. Now we were accepting 10% of that, which becomes INR 10. Now our capacities have gone up this year. The risk is good, and the premium rate now has become instead of INR 100, INR 125, or INR 120. And we have actually taken instead of 10%, 12%. So the premium has actually increased by 40% in that risk because the increase in premium rate and increase in capacity. So that typically will play out more on the profit side in this. But as we go through our results in detail and go line-wise, etc., we will be happy to have a discussion around that.
Fundamentally, there has not been any change in our reinsurance or in our reinsurance call. I would just request everyone to just keep in mind when you grow so fast, especially in one quarter, which is coming from large corporate business. And you know that getting entry into large corporates, becoming leaders is not easy. In fact, some of you in our discussion have said that you feel how a new company can go and become leaders in that. So actually, my personal, this is no guidance, my personal no reason for us not to be involved in gross written premium. I think for us to get in there, and I think this makes sense listening to this.
Sure, thank you. That answers my question. Thank you very much.
Thanks, everyone, for joining us all. I appreciate your time and patience, and look forward to continuously staying in touch. Anything else you want us to do on the IFRS results? I don't want to take a name, but somebody on the call had said that we should share more information. Anything you feel we should be doing, you can rest assured we'll include it in our second quarter. Transparency is our core value. We can talk, give transparency in our results. We'll be more than happy to do that. Thanks again for joining us. Good night.
Thank you. On behalf of ICICI Securities Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.