Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Star Health and Allied Insurance Company Limited's Q3 and nine-month FY 2025 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Prateek Patil from Adfactors PR, Investor Relations Team. Thank you, and over to you.
Thank you, Ashishri. Good morning, everyone. From the senior management, we have with us Mr. Anand Roy, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Nilesh Kambli, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Aneesh Srivastava, Chief Investment Officer, Mr. Amitabh Jain, Chief Operating Officer, and Mr. Aditya Biyani, Chief Strategy and Investor Relations Officer. Before we begin the conference call, I would like to mention that some of the statements made during the course of today's call may be forward-looking in nature, including those related to the future financial and operating performances, benefits and synergies of the company's strategies, future opportunities, and growth of the market of the company's services. Further, I would like to mention that some of the statements made today in the conference call may involve risks and uncertainties. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Anand Roy.
Thank you, Prateek, and a very good morning to all of you. As we begin today's earnings call, let me take a moment, first of all, to wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year 2025. I know it's towards the end of January, but it's the first time we are connecting, so it's a privilege to connect with you today as we step into what promises to be a year of very positive changes and welcoming regulations for our industry. To take you through the details, I would like to hand over the mic to our colleague, Aditya. Aditya, over to you, please.
Thank you, Anand. Good morning, everyone, and wishing everyone a very happy and prosperous 2025. The insurance landscape is evolving rapidly, shaped by significant regulatory and accounting developments. These changes, while complex, are a reflection of our industry's maturing framework, one that emphasizes transparency, global alignment, and a customer-centric approach. Let me take a moment to outline how each of these regulatory changes will impact the industry and why they are critical. Firstly, the new reporting framework for long-term policies, effective October 1, 2024, marks a shift in premium recognition. Previously, insurers could account for the entire premium of a long-term policy in a single year, reflecting a higher gross written premium. Under the new framework, the premiums will be annualized, with the total premium divided by the policy tenure and recorded proportionately for each year.
For instance, for a three-year policy, only 1/3 of the total premium will be recognized in the first year's gross written premium. This change will lead to a reduction in the reported gross written premium, which in turn will reflect changes in net earned premium and net written premium, having an impact on the expense ratio and loss ratio of the insurer. At Star Health, we are following 1/365 days' unexpired risk reserve method, resulting in no deviation in net earned premium under the new regulatory framework. Secondly, the adoption of the IFRS standard is on the cards for implementation in the next couple of years, which marks a pivotal shift in how insurers align revenue and expenses. This transition will enhance clarity in key financial metrics, including net earned premium, investment income, and acquisition cost.
Under IFRS, net acquisition cost will be deferred in line with the policy tenure and will reflect true economic return on equity. Additionally, these updated standards will enable greater transparency and improve compatibility between industry players. With the implementation of the 1/N methodology mentioned above, there is a partial move towards the IFRS reporting in terms of net acquisition cost, which gets accounted in the future. Thirdly, the expenses of management regulation, which came into force from April 1, 2023, mandates maintaining an EOM to gross written premium cap of 35% for SAHI players. At Star Health, we are well below this requirement, which enables us to strategically focus on retail market expansion and enhanced service delivery. Moving on to the industry performance on a 1/N basis, in the nine-month FY 25, the health insurance industry has grown by 11% and has reached INR 94,908 crores.
This robust growth was driven by 14.3% growth in retail health and 12.4% growth in group health. In order to maintain consistency, clarity, and compatibility of numbers, we will be showcasing our business numbers in 1/N and without 1/N for this financial year. Coming to Star Health's performance, in the nine-month FY 2025, without the 1/N framework, on an overall basis, our GWP has grown by 16%, and the fresh GWP grew by 27%. Coming to our retail health segment, our overall business has grown by 14%, and the fresh retail health GWP grew by 22%. We have retained our retail health market share, which now stands at 32.2%, which is three times larger than the second player in the industry. Fresh retail number of policy growth stood at 13%, emphasizing our focus on volume growth and value growth.
Our fresh-to-renewal ratio for the nine-month FY 25 is 24:76, as against 22:78 over the same corresponding period last year. We continue our focus on the risk-first growth rate strategy, and these numbers are in context of the strategy with prudent and tighter underwriting standards. Now, moving on to our four engines of growth, A, B, C, D, without 1/N basis for the first nine months. Firstly, I would like to highlight agency. Our agency vertical contributed around 80% of our overall business in the FY 2025. Our agency strength has increased to 761,000 agents, with net addition of 19,000 agents in the December quarter. The agent recruitment number has now reached 66,000 in the first nine months of this financial year. We have also seen a strong 14% increase in fresh GWP in the nine-month FY 2025 over last year through this channel.
Agency activation for the nine-month FY 2025 has grown by 13% over the nine-month FY 2024. Coming to bancassurance, in the nine-month FY 2025, our bancassurance channel contributed 8% to our total business, and the business has grown by 20% on an overall basis. Our number of bancassurance partners now stands at 69. In this quarter, we added names like Bajaj Finance and Neo Group to our portfolio. C is for corporate. In the nine-month financial year 25, our corporate business contributed 4% to overall business. Our proprietary over-the-counter SME calculator has strengthened our association with intermediaries who have been generating new business focusing on SME and MSME business segments. Coming to digital business, our digital business comprises of our own direct-to-consumer online brokers and web aggregators, which contributed 8% to our overall business in the nine-month financial year 25.
Our own direct-to-consumer channel contributes 72% to the digital business, and the remaining 28% comes from online brokers and web aggregators. Our fresh business from digital grew by 58%. Coming to the financial performance for the nine-month FY 2025 on a 1/N basis, our combined ratio for the nine-month FY 2025 stood at 101.8% versus 98.3% in the nine-month FY 2024. I would just like to highlight our combined ratio without 1/N stands at 101.3% for the nine-month FY 2025. Our claim ratio for the nine-month FY 2025 stood at 70.7% versus 67.3% in the nine-month FY 2024. We would also like to highlight our retail loss ratio for the nine-month FY 2025, which stands at 69.2%, and group loss ratio is 90.4%. Expense ratio for the nine-month FY 2025 stood at 31.2% versus 31% in the nine-month FY 2024.
I would like to highlight the expense ratio without 1/N. It stands at 30.6% for the nine-month FY 2025. For the nine-month FY 2025, PBT stood at 862 crores. PAT for the nine-month FY 2025 stood at 645 crores. Our non-annualized ROE for the nine-month FY 2025 stood at 9.7%. Our investment income in the nine-month FY 2025 has grown to 996 crores versus 790 crores in the nine-month FY 2024. Our investment assets have grown by 15% and have reached 16,666 crores in the nine-month FY 2025. Solvency of the company as of December 2024 was 2.22 times compared to the regulatory requirement of 1.5 x. Coming to the other key highlight, our NPS score stands at 56 for the quarter ended on December 2024. Our claims NPS stands at 63 as of December 31, 2024, versus 53 on September 30, 2024.
Our claims rejection rate stands at 10.22% for the quarter ended December 31, 2024. Our renewal persistency has improved to 87% on the number of policies. Our app downloads have reached 8.6 million as of the nine-month FY 2025. Our monthly active users have crossed 1 million as of December 24. The organic traffic to our website has grown by 28% over the last nine months. The digital issuance as a percentage of premium collection stands at 70% in the nine-month FY 2025 versus 65% in the nine-month FY 2024. The PHC and wellness contribution to total claims all of those stands at 0.6%. Our home healthcare initiative has now been expanded to 100 locations and has been widely embraced by customers, steadily gaining recognition. With support of trusted partners like Apollo, Max@ Home Health, and Portea, we ensure reliable personalized care that meets the diverse needs of customers across India.
The average sum insured of new policies has increased by 10% to INR 10.6 lakh per policy. INR 5 lakh and above sum insured policies now constitute 82% of our retail health portfolio versus 77% in the nine-month FY 2024. The share of long-term policy within our GWP has increased to 10% in the nine-month FY 2025 versus 7% in the nine-month FY 2024 on and without 1/N. We have had to align our product pricing strategy to match the market reality. Up to January 2025, we have implemented price increase across five products, which is approximately 65% of our retail health portfolio. Our recently launched new product, Super Star, offering unparalleled flexibility and customization, offers 21 optional covers in addition to its exhaustive list of base covers. Unique benefits such as Freeze Your Age, Limitless Care, Superstar Bonus, Wellness Program, and Premium Waiver make it stand out in the market.
We are proud to share that Super Star has achieved remarkable success, driving fresh growth for the business. It has also become the top-selling product on our digital platform and also on the leading web aggregator and digital partners. And with all these updates, we can now open the floor for Q&A. Thank you.
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 their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press Star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We'll take our first question from the line of Shreya Shivani from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Morning. Thank you for the opportunity. Am I audible? Hello?
Yes, please go ahead.
Yeah. Okay. Sure. I have two questions. First, I wanted a clarification. You mentioned that your GWP growth without 1/N is 16%. However, in your sub-notes in the P&L, you've given that about 30, the exact amount of premiums that have been deferred because of this 1/N accounting. If I adjust for that, which is about INR 30 lakhs or so, if I adjust for that, the growth looked more like 13.5% to 14%. I just wanted a clarification if what I heard was correct. Second, what I wanted to understand was on the commissions and how it may have played out in this quarter. So clearly, your reinsurance also got deferred along with the 1/N long-term policies, which means that the income that you were earning from the reinsurance commission has become smaller.
So ideally, your commission absolute amount should have picked up in the quarter, should have been larger than at least the last quarter. I mean, that was the rough math I was arriving at, but that's not the trend that has come about. So if you can help me understand why that hasn't played out and also the way the expense ratios have become elevated, it's fair to say that this is going to be the standard going ahead. So are we looking at a fourth quarter where we usually the reserves are added, which means our PAT can be much, much lower? In fact, it could be a very weak quarter going into fourth quarter. Those are my questions. Thank you.
Yeah. So Shreya, on the GWP growth, the number you're talking about is quarter 3, which is 13.7%. For nine months with the 1/N impact, it is 16%.
Okay. Okay. Got it. Got it. Yeah.
In terms of RI commission, for long-term policies, there is no RI commission. But if you're comparing it with last year, last year we had the RI commission treaty, which came in Q3 itself, which was effective 1st April 2023. From April 2023 to December 2023, there was a one-time impact in Q3 last year, which is spread out in all the quarters this time. And in Q3, we had an impact because with 1/N on long-term policies, there is no ceding as well as there is no reinsurance commission.
Okay. So the reinsurance treaty itself has changed this time. There is no change because of the way the accounting is done. Is my understanding correct?
No. Because of the change in accounting, there is a different amount of reinsurance commission which has happened because I'm not looking to the government, and hence there is no ceding and no RI commission. There is a change.
Okay. Got it. And the reinsurance ratio is about 6.2% or so. Will this be the steady state going ahead?
Yeah. It will be in the similar range with the base of the quarters.
Got it. And on the fourth quarter, yeah. Yeah.
On the fourth quarter, with the ceding, I mean, with the 1/N accounting coming in, there will be a different amount of cost in terms of the long-term policies. So there will not be a much impact on the. That is what we see with RI commission and the cost also getting deferred. Yeah.
But see, this quarter we got a bit of support because it's a quarter where third quarter is when we release reserves. The URR is changed and URR is negative. Fourth quarter is usually when that number becomes much bigger, right? So the PAT is always sequentially or fourth quarter PAT is always weaker. Now your expense ratios are also elevated. Unless there is a very sharp improvement in the loss ratio, the quarter can look very weak, right?
Yeah. Shreya, explain it to you on one or two bases. But what will happen is because there is a deferment of GWP, there will be a lesser impact on the URR itself. The earned premium is not changed. And expense ratio is only an accounting number because of the lower NWP, the expense ratio shows an increase. On a like-to-like basis, there is no increase.
In fact, we are doing well on the expense ratio.
Okay. Okay. Sure. Those are my questions. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Avinash Singh from Emkay Global. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for the opportunity. The first question again kind of for data keeping. If we look at this impact on GWP from 1/N, that's close to 300-odd crores or say 8% declined for the quarter. I mean, if I do sort of a very, very crude simple math, assuming that, okay, the average tenure of this long-term policy to be three years, is it correct to assume that nearly close to 12% of your entire GWP in this quarter was kind of that impacted by this 1/N accounting? So broadly, that, okay, the 12% is a figure for 1/N. So that's question one.
And secondly, more again, I mean, this is more from, I would say, a very fundamental and directional perspective, that you have been kind of taking actions in terms of pricing or whatever you can do with your network hospital, yet the claims ratio remains way beyond the comfort zone for a model as a standard of health insurer. I mean, you would like it to at least go below 67-odd% currently you are running even for the nine months near 70-odd%, so 70+%. So the question is that, okay, I mean, how long do you see that your action and the market reality is going to take before, I mean, we are anywhere closer to what is the desirable sort of a range in terms of claims ratio?
I mean, of course, expense and all are sorted, so there is not much, I think, that, okay, you can do there. So for you, it becomes a kind of an imperative to whatever you can do on the claim side. And there, of course, despite your actions, things are not kind of improving the way you would like to. So I mean, what kind of a timeline would you see before these things start to play, I mean, play out and the numbers look somewhere where you could be comfortable relatively? So two questions. Thank you.
Yeah. So on your second question regarding the loss ratio, if you look at sequentially, the loss ratio has come down from quarter 2 to quarter 3 by almost 1.4%.
But if you look at further, if we segregate between retail and group, retail has actually come down by almost close to 2%, roughly 180 basis points. So clearly, there is improvement. Yes, we would like it to be better than this. And some of the actions that we've been taking are towards that. But there has been a consistent increase in frequency and severity, largely driven by heightened awareness in cashless availability, accessibility, active reach-out by hospitals, and generally a more higher preference for going for surgical interventions rather than going for conservative treatments and all. So keeping that in mind, we've taken consistent price increases across our products. And by the time we entered Q4, which is our biggest quarter, we've already repriced close to 65% of our retail portfolio.
So to that extent, I think whatever we need to do, given all the changes we are seeing, we have done most of that, and we should start seeing the impact of this coming in the next few quarters. And as far as bancassurance and group business is concerned, yes, there has been more worsening on that side. And those are annual policies where we can intervene much faster and do corrections much faster. So those corrections we've already taken in Q3, and therefore going forward, that would look better.
Yeah. Avinash, in terms of your first question, there is a mix of two years and three years as well. So the long-term for Q3 will be 9% of our portfolio. 91% continues to be one-year policies.
So just as a follow-up, if it was 9%, then the impact, I mean, because of 1/N, that is coming close to 7 to 8%. So I mean, if it was 9%, then typically you will account nearly, say, assuming that, okay, two, three years. So three-odd % you will account. So impact should have been lesser because the impact appears to be close to 8% of your premium. That's why I sort of asked that, okay, if it is higher.
Yeah. It will keep on normalizing as we keep on booking the premium going forward.
And just again, just a quick follow-up. I mean, how has been the growth trend looking so far in January? Because I mean, today we are on 29th, you would have sensed because December, for whatever reason, despite it just 1/N, was weak for industry.
So how has been because you are sort of taking the price hike as well. So how has been kind of a growth trend looking in the month of January?
Sorry, Avinash, I'm not clear. As you rightly said, there have been a lot of changes in the quarter 3, both from regulatory framework as well as the macro situation. So we saw some disturbance that time. But quarter 4, January growth looks very, very positive. In fact, on all the areas, on our retail side, we are doing very well. And we hope to close this year on a very, very positive note.
Okay. I understand.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to answer queries from all participants, kindly restrict your question to two at a time. You may join back the queue for follow-up questions.
We'll take our next question from the line of Prayesh Jain from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Good morning, everyone. The first question is on the expense ratio, right? That has stagnated around 30%, and we've been growing at 15% to 16%. Do we conclude out of this that the incremental acquisition is coming at a higher expense cost versus what was the trend previously? And this is the levels or possibly even we can see some increase as the fresh-to-renewal ratio kind of increases further. Do you think that this expense of management ratio would continue to trend flattish, or we can see some scaled benefits if we grow at 15% to 16%?
Yeah. So what we have seen is while it looks flattish, we have been improving our share of bancassurance business, which is benefit products, which is a higher procurement cost.
The second factor is for retail business also, the proportion of long-term has been increasing for us. So from April to September also has a proportion of long-term business. And that got accounted upfront under the erstwhile before 1/N rule. Hence, the expense ratio looks to be flatish. As we implement 1/N, as we are getting scaled benefits, this will keep on coming down as we speak. So we see we will continue to get the 0.5%, 0.75% benefit going ahead, especially with 1/N implementation as well.
So you're saying including 1/N, there will be still benefit of 0.5%, 0.7%?
No. No. No. Yeah. No. We have to normalize it for 1/N. And on a like-for-like basis, there will be benefit which will come. The weight has moved up, and then it will keep on coming down again because the weight has changed.
Okay. Second question is on the combined ratio of each of these segments. If you can share that, you shared loss ratios, but the combined ratios in each of these segments, the retail and the group for nine months, that would be helpful. And secondly, just a suggestion, if you could report 1/N numbers on a monthly, excluding 1/N numbers on a monthly basis, that would be pretty helpful to us. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Supratim Datta. Should we take the next question, sir?
Prayesh, can you repeat your question again, please?
One second, sir.
The second question.
Prayesh?
Yeah, sir. Yeah. Can you hear me?
Yes. Now you're audible.
I'm asking the combined ratio of group and retail for the nine months, if you can share that, that would be helpful.
Suggestion was to start giving 1/N numbers on a monthly, excluding 1/N numbers on a growth basis on a monthly basis. That would be helpful to us. That was a suggestion, but question is on the combined ratio of group and retail.
You'll notice, I think we've already shared the retail loss ratios and group loss ratios. Considering retail is more driven by an agency, we are a retail-driven organization. More or less, if you see a combined ratio for the organization, we'll reflect the retail loss ratios too, retail combined ratios too. In future, we will make a note of it. And if possible, we will try to share the combined ratios too, but no commitment right now on the conference call.
Okay. Great. Thank you so much and all the best.
Thank you.
We'll take our next question from the line of Supratim Datta from Ambit. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on the loss ratio, and I understand that you have repriced 65.
Can you say that more, please? You're not very clear.
Can you hear me now? Is this better?
Can you speak a bit louder, please?
Is this better?
Yes. Please go ahead.
Yeah. So what I was saying is you have repriced 65% of your portfolio, and you expect that to positively impact loss ratios. But if I remember last year as well, you had repriced the FHO product, which contributed around 40% of your portfolio by around 25%. However, we haven't seen that positive impact come in this year. Your retail loss ratios for nine months is around 350 basis points higher than what we were doing last year.
So just wanted to understand why do you think this time the pricing actions will be different from what happened last year? If you could give us some color on that. Because from a regulatory side, what we are seeing is the regulator keeps tightening, be it the kind of policies that you underwrite, that there is tightening on that, or on the claims and claim reimbursements, there seems to be more focus on that both from a regulatory as well as political standpoint. So in this backdrop, why do you think these current price hikes should be sufficient to drive an improvement? If you could give us some color on that, that's the first question. On the second one, if I look at the group business of yours, you went out of this in FY 2023. Again, you went in in FY 2024.
The idea was that SMEs will result in better loss ratios. However, that experience hasn't really played out. Now, then from here, do you think that it's better to exit this business again, or do you think a price hike will be sufficient enough to address the issue? Because this is, again, a very highly competitive business at an overall level, so I just wanted to understand what is our strategy going to be here from this point onwards. That, again, would give us some clarity, and lastly, on the new business growth and the fresh business growth that you pointed out, last half for the second quarter, you had indicated that the first half, fresh business growth was around 31%, and this time, you are saying nine months is around 22%.
So third quarter, has there been a slowdown, or how should we read that, or have I gotten my data wrong? If you could give some clarity on that, that would be helpful. Thank you.
Yeah. I have to present Amitabh again. What is very clear is that pricing alone cannot solve for the entire portfolio loss ratio management. And therefore, along with price increases, we are taking various portfolio correction measures based on micro-segmentation of our portfolio, which is to do with which products, which markets, what kind of adopters, etc. Also, the overall strategy on what we do for specific markets in terms of the way we handle our distribution, so all of that will go along with pricing to make some of these impacts.
And of course, the work that is happening on the supply side, which is how we deal with the providers and so on. So it's a 360-degree approach that we have to take, and we are working on all of that to make things happen. We are aware that pricing alone won't solve for it. And see, we also have to be conscious that price increases beyond the point can be counterproductive because they might lead to either lower retentions or impacting fresh sales. So that also has to be kept in mind while we are doing this. The whole idea is that we get to a cycle of good growth on the fresh side, as well as have good retentions with the desired yield that we have designed in the increases. So that's how we are approaching it.
So Supratim, on your other two questions on group and new business growth, I think we are quite on the group side, the strategy was always very clear to focus on the SME and mid-corporates, and that's what we have been doing. But as you have rightly pointed out, even in those areas, we have seen an elevated loss ratio compared to what we had initially planned for. And lastly, if you consider the whole industry's loss ratio on the group side, it has increased, and Star Health also has felt the impact, of course. So we continue with our strategy. There is no change in the strategy. We will keep focusing on the SME and the mid-corporate segments. And as we have already mentioned in our opening remarks, it's a small portion of our overall business plan, but we will continue the same strategy.
As far as new business is concerned, we are growing very well. In fact, we are very confident of doing much, much better as we go forward because this new product of Superstar has really taken off very well for us on all the channels, and we expect this to become even better going forward. So first half and second half comparison cannot be maintained because bulk of the business comes in second half. So growth rate on new business seems to be very, very comfortable for us.
Supratim? Does that answer your question? Supratim, I think you're on mute. Since there is no response. Sorry. Since there is no response, we'll move on to the next question from the line of Madhukar Ladha from Nuvama Wealth Management. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and thank you for taking my question.
First, what is the extent of price hike that we're looking at? And this, again, gives me some fear that we may lose market share as a result of taking continuous price hikes. I think we're taking a price hike on Family Health Optima. Last year, we had taken 25% on top of it. Again, we are taking a price hike right now. So how are we going to contain that element? Also, can you also maybe I missed this. What is the fresh business growth for nine months and for Q3, if you can give those two numbers? And lastly, loss ratios remain sort of elevated. So what is your expectation of the trajectory going forward into 2026 and 2027?
So some sort of guidance of there could help us as to what sort of numbers we as management are probably you as management are probably going to be looking at or are working with. Yeah. Those would be my questions. Thank you.
Hi, Madhukar. This is Anand here. See, price hike is a reflection of the market reality, which for us, mostly obviously driven by medical inflation. As long as India continues to have a very high medical inflation, insurance companies will have to keep pace with that. So this is not the first port of call, as we have always mentioned. But even if you look at it, the annualized yield that we are targeting on every product price hike we do is between 10% to 12%. So I think inflation is a reality, and customers have to, unfortunately, pay for that.
That is how we are planning our strategies. We are very mindful of the sensitivity of this whole business. We know that retaining customers, making sure that they don't feel aggrieved. We have also designed our pricing strategy in that manner so that most customers do not feel aggrieved by this whole incident. As far as FHO is concerned, yes, we had taken a price increase two years ago, but we have decided to take one more this year. That will continue. As far as retail fresh is concerned, we have grown at 22% on nine months on a GWP basis and 13% on NEP basis. Our strategy continues to be pushing both on the volume side and the value-side-led growth, which will continue. We are very happy to see these numbers coming back on track.
And on the loss ratios, sir, what should we sort of start thinking? How should we think about it over 2026, 2027? Any improvement numbers that we should target at?
So Madhukar, the price hikes have been taken. And as we follow 1/365 method, the impact will be seen in the next 18 to 24 months. What's more important is our claim rejection rates have gone down, and our customer NPS has gone up. So we are very cognizant of the fact that how the customer service delivery can be enhanced in these times. Price hikes have been taken only to mitigate the medical inflation, and this will continue going forward too. So we will have to wait and see how it goes. The initial numbers, when we have taken a price hike, the retentions have been good.
So we don't see any issue in our retention portfolio in the coming years.
Got it. Just one more, if I could squeeze in one more question on the commission side. So I understand that the larger aggregators still are not willing to accept yearly commissions, and IRDAI does not allow deferring of this cost. In that context, how have we dealt with this? It seems that we've managed to convert this for ourselves to a sort of yearly commission payment mechanism. But I would like to hear your comments on that. And second is, given this, do you see industry dynamics changing in any way? Because the EOM ratios for your competitors will then go up a lot more sharply than they would go up for yours. So does that help you in any way? Yeah. Thanks.
So Madhukar, I think you answered the question yourself.
The EOM regulations do not put any cap on the payment of commissions. The accounting method for your gross written premium is what has changed. So on a case-to-case basis, we are discussing with our partners, and we are taking decisions based on what is beneficial to Star Health. So yes, we do have some headroom on the EOM side as compared to some of our peers, and we will utilize it strategically wherever needed. Thanks.
Madhukar, thank you for your question.
Sure.
Yeah. We'll take our next question from the line of Uday Pai from Investec. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hello. Thanks for the opportunity. I have a couple of questions. First one is, can you quantify the blended impact of the price hike that you have taken FY 2025 on your total portfolio?
Second would be, you had introduced premium discounting for customers with no claims, so a product with that feature. So can you share what is the contribution of that product to GWP? And also, if I can squeeze in last one, what would be the loss ratios in the bancassurance channel? You mentioned that it is a high procurement cost channel, but can you also share the loss ratios in that channel? Those would be my questions. Thank you.
The price hikes that we have taken are in the range of 8% to 9% on blended basis. In terms of bancassurance channel, we maintain a combined ratio target, which is below a certain level. So very difficult to comment on the loss ratio, but these are very, very low loss ratios. These are attachment products which are very beneficial to the customers.
And in case of need, these claims are paid out.
Yeah. On the contribution of the no-claims premium discounting product?
So it's introduced for one of the products, which is 30% of our portfolio as of now. It's introduced for FHO products.
Thank you.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Prakash Kapadia from Spark PMS. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. If I were to look at nine months, Combined Ratio is 101.8 versus 98.2. This is largely due to higher Loss Ratios. And this quarter, we've seen OpEx and commission being higher. You partly alluded to the 1/N impact, which has started recently. So what I wanted to understand, we are already following 1 by 365. So what is the impact of 1/N for us?
From here on, how does the trajectory of combined ratios look forward on a 26 or near-term basis for us? Because we were already 1 by 365 in terms of revenue recognition. So with 1/N, is the impact still there? Lesser? Are we better off? If you could give some insights, that would be helpful.
Okay. So when we calculate the loss ratio, the numerator is claims and the denominator is net earned premium. And hence, for loss ratio purposes, the 1/N change does not create an impact. When it comes to expense ratio, the denominator is net return premium. So while the NEP does not get impacted because of 1/N, the net return premium does get impacted because GWP is going down. And hence, the expense ratio looks to be elevated by 1.6% for the quarter.
So that is done on a like-to-like basis. We see that the expense ratio is flat.
Okay. So you're saying for Q3, if I were to take this impact, it is higher by 1.6%?
Yeah. Because of the 1/N impact. Otherwise, last year, it was 30.3% expense ratio. Now it is 30.2%, which is flattish.
Okay. Okay. And as we build the book and we are looking at growth coming forward from Q4 onward, so what ideally should we look at, the direction of? I'm not looking at a specific guidance, the direction of the combined ratios going forward. How lower can they be? Some kind of a direction?
See, Prakash, right now, when we started this year, we had given that we would like to double our top line and work towards an IFRS path.
Right now, at this critical juncture where there are so many regulatory and accounting changes happening, I think what's more important is whether the segment is growing and we as retail players, whether the fresh business is going up or not. I think that is where the agencies, the digital, the banker retail, everyone is focusing on it, and our growth has been very, very good. In fact, our retail fresh growth has been almost in the range of 22-odd% and followed by a very good volume growth. So more than anything, I think we should be focusing more on the IFRS path towards financial year 2028 and whether we can keep growing at the rate what we have envisaged, which is 80-odd%, reaching and doubling our top line from financial year 2020.
Okay. Thanks.
Thank you.
We'll take our next question from the line of Dipanjan Ghosh from Citi. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, sir. So just a few questions. First, when I look at your renewal premium growth, that tends to be in the retail health side. My calculations say that it should be around the 10% to 13% range. And you also mentioned the blended price hikes that you have taken over the last nine months is around 8% to 10%. So broadly speaking, I just want to understand how has the retail persistency ratio been holding up if I look at the number of policies? So that would be my first question. My second, what I understand is in your group business, you have scaled up the bancassurance business over the past maybe 8 to 10 quarters. Despite that, the claims is standing at more than 80%.
So I just wanted to understand on the employer-employee side, what would be the mix today in your group, and how has that segment really behaved, including large corporates and SMEs? And last question, one is on the overall book, let's say, that you have originated post, let's say, FY 2022 or maybe in the last 10 to 12 quarters, what would be the composition of this new book or the book which? We got cut. Hello?
You're audible.
Hello. You're audible? Okay. Okay. So renewal persistency, let me just answer that. We have seen definitely an improvement in the renewal persistency this year at 87% in the number of policies as compared to 84% in the last quarter of FY 2024. So I think the focus is on ensuring that customers renew their plans. We do put significant efforts in reaching out to customers, giving them the ease of payment options.
And also, most of these renewals happen digitally. So I think this is something that we will continue to focus on. Aim is to make sure customers continue to get the benefit of having a Star Health policy and do not fall out of the franchise. On the bancassurance side, there has been a slowdown in the PSU banks. You are aware of it. There have been multiple challenges on the bancassurance business in terms of regulatory interventions, in terms of oversight by the ministry on insurance sales in banks. So all of this has definitely affected the business growth than what we had planned. But we are very, very positive of the partners that we have. We continue to add new partners on the bancassurance space. And definitely, I think this is an area which we will keep focusing on.
On the group side, you had mentioned about. I had mentioned in my opening remarks, it's a small business. It's 4% of our portfolio, focusing largely on SME and mid-corporates. But yes, there has been a deterioration in the loss ratios on the group side for the industry and as well as for Star Health. So we are taking some corrective measures in terms of our pricing and selection of business so that this business can continue to be profitable in the long run. Thank you.
Dipanjan, does that answer your question? Thank you. I'm sorry. We'll take our next question from the line of Jayant Kharote from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
T hank you for the opportunity.
Sorry. Give me a moment, please. Yeah. Mr. Kharote? Yes. Yeah. Can you go ahead now, please?
First question is regarding volume growth.
If you could quantify the volume growth for this quarter for the firm and for the nine months, and how is that shaping up? I'll come back with the second one.
So volume growth, 50% continues to be volume growth for the first nine months, and 50% is the value growth that we are seeing. With the price increase, which is effective December and January, we'll see a higher proportion of value growth going forward. But for the nine months, it is 50%. So can you just quantify the numbers for the quarter for the retail health? It's around 7% volume growth and 7% is value growth.
Great. Now, coming to yeah, on the claims side, so I think one thing is clear that this claims is not a Star issue. It's a broader industry issue.
Remember, the last three quarters is becoming more and more apparent. A slightly longer-term question: how do we address this issue that there's not dispersion of patients across hospitals? And of course, the issue of supply of the beds, right? We see a lot of PE investments coming in over the next but these hospitals take time to scale up and mature. What role can you as the market leader play to sort of accelerate these hospital maturity cycles so that that supply of beds increases and at least the severity can, if not decline, at least stop growing at this pace?
There's a great question. This is something that Star and, of course, the industry is really taking time to kind of get solutions. It is not one particular thing or one particular strategy that will work.
But one of the things that we've been working with the GI Council is to get to discussion with the major hospital groups to agree on certain basic hygiene. For example, the way billing happens, the kind of billing heads that get billed to customers and to insurers, what could be the basic protocol for medical admissions? Because we've seen a heightened reach out to have admissions even for very basic medical requirements like simple fevers and so on. So one is that. Two is, of course, how we sort of combine as an industry to look at what we can do on getting more awareness among customers to be more aware of wellness and health conditions and make that as a first port of call, right? In the long run, ultimately, a healthy customer base will lead to a healthy portfolio.
So those are some of the things that we are doing. Third is specifically Star is going all out to kind of use all the preventive measures that can be done. So for example, we've been running a program on containing readmission rates where we have seen a very appreciable movement of roughly a 20% reduction in readmissions that we've been driving post-admission happens. So those are the kind of measures, a 360-degree approach that we look to take to kind of contain some of this. And of course, we've been talking to the government for a regulator for the hospital industry, which is, I think, very essential for some of these things to fall in place. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll take that as the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Mr.
Nilesh Kambli from Star Health and Allied Insurance Company Limited for closing comments. Over to you.
Thank you, everyone, for joining us. So we are experiencing a good growth in our retail business with extension in our product and distribution profiles. We are excited about Quarter 4, which is the largest quarter in terms of the premium for us. With the pricing intervention taken in December and January 2025, the financials will continue to improve going ahead. Thanks for joining the call. Thank you very much.
Thank you. On behalf of Star Health and Allied Insurance Company Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your line.