Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Star Health and Allied Insurance Company Limited Q1 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 the star then zero on your touchtone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Prateek Patil from Adfactor PR, Investor Relations team. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Steve. 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. Anish 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 strategy, future opportunities, and growth of the market of the company's services. Further, I would like to mention that some of the statements made in today's 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 on this Wednesday morning. Thank you for taking time and joining this conference call of Star Health Insurance. At our company, we continue to focus on our planned journey of growth with profit while maintaining the leadership in the health insurance domain. These are very interesting times for the industry, with multiple regulatory changes being thought about, focusing on customer centricity and also how to improving the services of the industry in general. We are gearing up for meeting those regulatory changes, and we are already ahead of the curve on many of those areas. We are totally committed to delivering on the Insurance For All guideline which the regulator has set for the industry, and we are taking multiple steps to increase our distribution and penetration.
I will now request my colleague, Aditya, to give you a brief about the company's performance in the quarter one, and then we are open to questions, questions, and answers from your side. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Anand. Very good evening, good morning to all of you. Thank you very much for joining us today for the earnings conference call of Star Health and Allied Insurance Company Limited for Q1 2025. Before delving into the company specifics, I would like to give you a brief overview on the industry trends and developments that we have witnessed in the last few months, and then walk you all through the company's strategic vision and our performance. The RBI's economic survey has pegged India's GDP growth at 6.5%-7% for the current financial year, which is a testament to the India growth story. On the other hand, for a burgeoning nation on track to become an economic powerhouse, there is a hidden vulnerability.
While the nation is rapidly surging forward, a majority percentage of individuals and households are exposed to financial risk by virtue of being uninsured or underinsured. On an individual level, this potentially limits access to quality healthcare, thus giving an opportunity to the health insurance segment with a long headroom for growth. However, there are further complications which are likely to become more acute as we move forward, like, for example, climate change, which is the biggest challenge that we all are facing today. A very cursory glance at empirical data shows the increase in climate change-related diseases across the globe. This has to be proactively addressed by the healthcare industry through innovative products and services. Having said that, the Indian insurance industry is quite resilient and ready to face these challenges.
The initiative of Insurance for All by [2047], driven by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India, coupled with the steadfast growth of the Indian economy, provides an opportune period for the expansion of the insurance sector. In line with this vision, IRDAI has issued a master circular on insurance. This emphasizes on customer centricity by mandating insurers to design and offer products that are fair, transparent, and easy to understand, ensuring that customers are well informed about the features and benefits of their policy. This approach aims to enhance customer trust and satisfaction, promoting a customer-first culture within the insurance industry. We have welcomed this change to invest more on the customer-centric projects. In the last couple of years, we have consciously embarked on the journey of putting risk first and growth later.
Our CAGR of 23% between financial year 2019 to financial year 2024, in overall business performance of gross written premium and the underwriting profit, which grew at a rate of 24% during the same period, demonstrates the effectiveness of the execution of strategy we had adopted. This thrust to performance at a calibrated risk undertaken has enabled us to shift towards growth with profit very effectively. As outlined previously during our analyst day, we have four engines of growth, namely A, B, C, D. A is for agency. Our agency business contributed around 80% of our overall business for the three months ended June 2024....Our agency strength has increased to 718,000 agents, with a net addition of 17,000 agents in the June quarter. B is for Banca.
As regards Banca partnerships and corporate agencies, we now have 61 channels in the banks and NBFC space. This channel contributes to around 8% to our GWP in Q1 FY 2025, including alternate channels. C is for corporate, and the corporate business comes via individual agents, banks, and brokers. This channel contributed 5% of our overall business in Q1 FY 2025. The top brokers, banks, are already our partners, and along with our agency force, we are getting an opportunity to work with SMEs and MSMEs for corporate business. Lastly, D is for digital. The digital business, comprising of our own direct-to-consumer and online brokers and web aggregators, contributed to around 7% of our overall GWP in Q1 FY 2025.
At a more granular level, 70% of our GWP comes from our own direct-to-consumer channel, and the balance 30% comes from our online brokers and web aggregators. In lockstep with our four growth engines, we have three competitive advantages. The first competitive advantage which we have is our cost leadership. Streamlining internal processes, leveraging technology, and fostering cost consciousness has resulted in maximizing efficiency and minimizing waste. These steps have ensured that we are able to keep our expenses of management well below the 35% norm as mandated by IRDAI. The second competitive advantage we have is of unparalleled distribution. Along with agency, which is our core competence, our diversification to [Banca], corporate, and digital is our four-pronged distribution strategy to service the insurance needs of all customer segments. Lastly, we have the best in-house claims servicing.
Our in-house claims management system and adoption of UX technology has enabled us to process 92% claims in less than two hours and a 24/7 service availability for a seamless experience, along with a 30,000+ healthcare provider network. With the aid of the four growth engines and three competitive modes, by FY 2028, we aspire to double our GWP to INR 30,000 crores and triple our PAT to INR 2,500 crores. Coming to our Q1 FY 2025 performance, for the three months ended June 2024, our GWP grew at a rate of 18% to INR 3,477.76 crores, compared to INR 2,949 crores during the same period last year.
We are the largest standalone health insurance company in India, and our share of GWP is close to 42% of the entire standalone health insurance industry. Our market share for Q1 FY 2025 amongst all general insurance companies is up by 20 basis points to 4.8%, versus 4.6% in the previous year. In Q1 FY 2025, we ticked all the boxes as far as fresh business is concerned. The ratio of fresh to renewal business in Q1 FY 2025 improved to 25:75, as compared to 23:77 in the same quarter last year. Retail fresh health premium and the agent activation rate also grew in the mid-teens in Q1 FY 2025. Coming to banca, fresh business grew by 25% with an uptick in the partner count to 61.
We expect the share of this channel to keep increasing in the coming quarters. As regards corporate channels, other than banca, the fresh business growth was 110%. The digital channel grew by 25% in Q1 FY 2025 in fresh business terms. With 50% market share in the direct-to-consumer space, we will continue to leverage this strength for further growth. In order to increase penetration in semi-urban and rural geographies, we have added 165 sales manager stations during the quarter, taking the total to 1,319 sales manager stations, which are small individual service centers. During the quarter, the total number of rural agents have gone up by [40%] on YoY basis. The number of rural agents active on retail fresh is also up by [40%].
With 887 branches, we have 2,000+ customer touchpoints to ensure better service. Of the 19,000+ pin codes in India, we are present in 17,253 pin codes via our sales distribution network. While keeping our focus on growth levers, we will continue our focus to further strengthen our customer centricity and take pride in staying true to our belief that all citizens have a right to get access to affordable health insurance. In line with this, we have recently launched our home healthcare service segment. This facility will be available to our policyholders at no extra premium. However, the expenses incurred will be deducted from the sum insured. We have collaborated with four home healthcare service providers, which has enabled us to provide this facility in more than 50 cities in the country.
I will now talk about some of our claims initiatives and the outcomes. In terms of claims, 90% of the paid claims in Q1 FY 2025 were cashless, versus 84% in Q1 FY 2024. The auto adjudication of claims helps us in drastically reducing the turnaround time. 33% of agreed network hospitals, that equate to 76% of the cashless claims, have been onboarded under our authorized adjudication initiative. Our anti-fraud, waste, and abuse, AI and machine learning models continue to yield savings for us. In terms of claims outflow, we were able to save 2.4% of the reported claims as a result, as a direct result of these measures. Let me now elaborate further on the financial performance of the company.
The Combined Ratio for Q1 FY 2025 is 99.2% versus the Combined Ratio for the same period last year, which was 97.8%. The Claims Ratio in Q1 FY 2025 was 67.6% versus 65.4% in Q1 FY 2024. The preventive health check, telemedicine, OPD, and wellness contribution in the Claims Ratio was 0.66% in Q1 FY 2025. The Expense Ratio for Q1 FY 2025 stood at 31.6% versus 32.4% for the corresponding quarter last year. Coming to our investment income, our investment assets are close to INR 15,802 crores in Q1 FY 2025, showing a 19% growth year-on-year. The yield for Q1 FY 2025 was 7.5% versus 7.4% in Q1 FY 2024.
The investment income during Q1 FY 2025 grew by 18% to INR 295 crores versus INR 250 crores in the same period last year. Coming to our profitability, our profit before tax of INR 426 crores for Q1 FY 2025 was up by 11% from the same period last year. Our PAT for Q1 FY 2025 came in at INR 319 crores, and this represents a year-on-year growth of 11%. The non-annualized ROE for Q1 FY 2025 has come in at 4.9% versus 5.2% in Q1 FY 2024. Coming to our solvency, we have a strong capital base, and our solvency as on thirtieth June 2024 is 2.29 times compared to the regulatory requirement of 1.5 times. Now, for some key highlights of Q1 FY 2025.
In Q1 FY 2025, the average sum insured of new policies has increased by 8% on a year-on-year basis to INR 10 lakhs approximately. 5 lakhs and above sum insured now constitute 81% of the retail health portfolio versus 76% in Q1 FY 2024. The share of the long-term policies within retail GWP has increased to 7% in Q1 FY 2025 versus 5% in Q1 FY 2024. Furthering our customer-centric approach, our NPS score stands at 16 for the quarter ended June 2024. The digital issuance as a percentage of premium collection stands at 72% in Q1 FY 2025 versus 61.6% in Q1 FY 2024. The proportion of cashless claims with agreed network hospitals has gone up to 74% versus 61% in Q1 FY 2024.
Coming to our prevention and wellness, our engagement with customers on prevention and wellness has seen a significant jump. Preventive health check has increased by 156% in Q1 FY 2025. On customers using telemedicine, there has been a 51% increase this quarter over Q1 FY 2024. On wellness enrollments, there has been a 100x jump in Q1 FY 2025 over the same quarter last year. As regards our Star Health app, our customer app downloads have increased to 6.6 million plus in Q1 FY 2025 versus 5.7 million as of FY 2024. Our monthly active users has increased by 26% compared to FY 2024. The organic traffic to the website grew by 57% in Q1 FY 2025 over the same period last year.
Lastly, if the regulator goes ahead with the rollout of composite licenses, we would certainly like to explore offering new, newer protection plans in life and non-life segments in the future. We would be well positioned to cater to the strong customer adjacencies and would be able to expedite leveraging our proprietary distribution for cross-sell and upsell to our existing customers. Our vast network and footprint will help us in greater monetization of assets and tap new customers as well. Our extensive experience and understanding of the customer needs will help empower us to innovate on integrated products. We are already working with a leading consultant to explore various strategies on the opportunities ahead of us.
To conclude, we at Star Health continue to believe and invest in the profitable and sustainable growth opportunities available in the health insurance segment, and we are on our desired path of realizing the same. Thank you for attending the call. We are happy to take your questions now.
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 touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Saurabh Mukherjee from BNK Securities. Please go ahead.
Good morning, sir, and thank you for the opportunity. I have three questions. Firstly, on the claims side, if you could highlight the claims number has seen some increase every fourth quarter. So, is there any one-off here, or is this like a steady state number and should we kind of think about the upcoming quarters on this, on this?
Saurabh, we are not very clear. Can you just articulate the question again, please?
Yeah, is this better now?
Yeah, very much.
Yeah, sure. So my first question was on the claims part. The claims numbers have seen some inflation. I think last quarter it was around, you know, slightly lower than INR 2,200 crores. So now this is almost as much as INR 2,400 crores. So is there any one-off here, or is this something steady state? And should we think about the upcoming three quarters of this financial year based on this number? And consequently, what would be your expectation on the loss ratio of the remaining part of remaining three quarters of the year? That is my first question. Second is on the A&P growth. So this quarter, still A&P growth lags the overall GWP growth.
So wanted to understand, when do you expect this A&P growth, you know, or the basically the price hike impact in A&P to flow in, in this year? And lastly, in terms of the renewal premium, so the renewal retail health renewal premium ratio has gone down to around 93%. So what is playing out here? Is there any challenge in renewals? And you know, we'd like to get your comments on that. Those will be my questions.
Yeah. Hi, Sonam. On the claims part, what we've seen is that, there's been, more than expected, frequency as far as, some of the medical cases go, for example, fevers and, related, cases, which never used to be part of the quarter one we experienced earlier. So this is the first time occurrence that has happened, and therefore, we see a slightly higher, than expected, you know, number. Let me also give you a context about the overall increase of the loss ratio.
So what has happened is that, you know, if you look at the non health part of the portfolio, that has contributed to about close to 1% of the overall increase, which is a reason because of some of higher PA loss ratios, personal accident loss ratios, as well as our spends going up further on our wellness and prevention activities. So overall, if you look at on the health side, the actual increase is just above 1%. So that's, that's how the claims stack up.
So, just a follow-up on that. So in terms of then, this being, you know, this looks like that this could be a steady state sector, and that way we can... Should we expect that loss ratios in second, third, and fourth quarter be slightly above what we had, recorded last year, given that this seems like a trend? And also wanted to understand, you know, the rationale of, this higher expenses in the, you know, wellness side of things, whether why this is booked under, the claims part as opposed to the expense part. If you could explain that also.
Yeah. So, see, so how this will sort of trend out, we've still to see that. But, clearly it seems that the cycle has moved, in terms of what we used to see earlier, starting from sometime in end of June and July and, you know, going further. Maybe this time it has started sometime in May. So if that is the case, then this might just get over, by August or September, which earlier, for example, last year, it went up to October and some part of November. So, you know, we still have to wait and see how it pans out. But, you know, we are obviously getting ready in terms of, you know, given this increase, how to deal with this for the rest of the year, we're getting ready for that.
As far as our spends on wellness and prevention is concerned, the costs are much lower than the, you know, benefits that we are seeing, the initial trends that are there. But these are long-term investments, and they pan out over a period of time. But, you know, the cost versus benefit is clearly, you know, favoring us.
Okay, sir. Yes, please, the rest of the queries, if you could address.
On the A&P growth, the A&P growth for the quarter is 15%. The NWP growth, you know, after ceding is 13%. So what we see, there is clearly an improvement in the all premium growth. This could have been slightly higher, but for the long-term reinsurance arrangement that we have, and, you know, for the long-term business, we have a 50% reinsurance ceding, which is impacting the premium. But the benefit is coming through the reinsurance commission. You see the reinsurance commission against last year of INR 34 crores, we have a reinsurance commission of INR 117 crores. So there is a benefit coming through the expense ratio.
Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay, sir, understood. And in terms of the renewal premium ratio, so what is happening in, in case of renewals?
See, renewal ratio is 93%. Last year there was an excess to price increase, which has taken the renewal ratio up to 97%. Our historical averages are between 93%-95%, and we continue to maintain that. What we are trying is the growth in terms of number of policies, and that continues to see a good improvement. You know, because there is no price increase, this is in line with our historical averages.
... Okay, sir, got it. I'll, I'll come back in the queue. Thank you so much for the responses.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to answer questions from all participants, please limit your questions to two per participant. The next question is from the line of Avinash Singh from Emkay Global. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, good morning. Thanks for the opportunity. A couple of questions. First one, more sort of a clarity I want. I mean, if I recall clearly, that's due to renewal policy breakup, you said 25 to 75. I believe that's the policy count. In premium terms, if I see, that goes in and around 23 to 92. I mean, your 92% premium is renewal from last year, and you have 15% on growth, so basically 23 out of the 115 premium in retail, 23 is coming from new business and 92 from renewal. This broadly implies that, I mean, every ticket size for the new policy to be closer to, you know, 20% lower than existing. Again, not very surprising because your existing pool will also be a kind of a age and all.
But is my understanding broadly correct, that the new pool, average ticket size is kind of 20% lower than the existing stock of renewal policy ticket size?
Avinash?
Yeah.
Can you again repeat the question in a crisp manner?
Yeah.
More clear.
Yeah, yeah. Due to renewal policy, breakup is 25-75. The 25% policy are new, 75% are renewal. If I go and look in premium terms, you have, you know, a 15% retail premium growth, that, and you have 92% renewal premium from, you know, coming from your existing. So basically, in this 115, the breakup will be something like a 23, you know, premium is coming from your new and 92 is coming from your existing book. So basically, the 75% policy, existing policy, contributing to INR 92 of premium and the 25% contributing INR 23. So that broadly ballpark gives me that new fresh policy ticket size is 20% lower than existing. That's partly possible because, I mean, like, typically your acquisition is younger.
But just I want to understand that, yes, is the understanding correct broadly, the average ticket size of new policy is 20% lower than my stock of, you know, or average ticket size of my stock or renewal policy? That's the first question.
Okay, Avinash, as we mentioned, the fresh numbers have ticked in all the boxes, including agency, including banca, including corporate and digital. Coming to your particular thing, we can always take it offline and we can deep dive into this question. Can we have your second question, please?
Yeah. The second is that, given where sort of, you know, the claims or issues are moving, the price hikes are largely done and dusted, and there are some kind of, I would say, tweaking around, some of the parameters in this new, you know, master circular around health insurance product. There's some kind of a tweaking in parameter that might have some, just at the margin, some, you know, impact on cost and all. In this backdrop, do you see, I mean, if this claim interest continues and all, are you okay with your, you know, the usual pricing, or again, you will have to sort of look for a fresh price hike?
So, Avinash, we have, you know, planned for a couple of product price increases already, as you are aware, which one product has gone live. Two more products will go live in the next one month time. So we have already planned for that. Given the new master circular which has come in, we are still evaluating the impact of that. On the first three plans, we see that most of them are related to operations and turnaround times and stuff. But there are certain conditions which may have long-term impact on the pricing. For example, reduction in the moratorium and period, reduction in the pre-existing disease period, and so on. So we will take price increases if required.
We are looking at the impact of these changes in the larger products, but as we speak, we are looking at two, three products we reprice already.
Okay. Okay, clear. And just finally, I mean, with this Q1 in backdrop and now Q2 development, one month you would have an idea, is sort of a, you know, the 50 basis point claims ratio improvement and 50 basis point OpEx improvement YoY, very much on track, or will there be some rethinking on that one, please?
No, we remain on track, Avinash. We are... When we spoke to you about that in the end of June, we were aware of the situation, and we are remaining on track as far as that particular commitment is concerned.
Okay, thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Supratim Datta from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Now, you know, coming back to the question of, you know, retail health renewal premium ratio. Now, if I see in FY 2022-2023, you had a ratio of around 94:95. Compared to that, you know, this time it has dropped to around 92.8, and if I take into consideration that you had the price impact, price hike that you had taken in May, one month of that price impact also flowed into this quarter. So the renewal ratio would have been even lower. Now, just wanted to understand here, which cohorts are, you know, actually moving out, where you are seeing posting happening outwards?...
Two, you know, my second question was that, you know, when I look at your, you know, retail health new business growth, that's, you know, seeing improvement in trend, which kind of started in the fourth quarter and has continued in the first quarter. I wanted to understand here, what would be the breakup of, you know, indemnity policies? And, you know, if you could, and within that, you could give us, you know, what is, the kind of growth you're getting from quoting inwards that is happening, for you. You know, that would be very helpful. And lastly, on commissions, you know, like you rightly pointed out that, you know, the insurance contract that you enter for long-term policies, that has contributed to the, you know, reinsurance commission going up significantly.
Despite that, you know, the commission ratio moved up by around 40 basis points this quarter. So wanted to understand, has there been any renegotiation with respect to commission structure, or is the new business that you are acquiring coming from higher cost channels?
So couple of things. One is, as far as retention is concerned, we are happy to let you know that our policy-wise retention remains constant and, in fact, it has improved by a percentage point. So we track policy-wise retention, which is a true picture of how customers are, you know, believing in our services and products. As far as the drop in GWP retention is concerned, our averages have been around 94%-97%. We hope to get there by end of the year. As the business mix is changing, moving more towards digital and alternate and bank insurance, there are these channels typically have a little lower retention rate as compared to our traditional agency channel. So there may be a little bit of a drop in, given that business mix change.
However, we are very, you know, mindful of customer retention, and we ensure that, you know, we are, up there. So we are really happy to report that more than 50% of our customers are renewing their policies online, through our digital channels, without any intervention of any human beings. So we are investing a lot in technology and processes to improve our retention. As far as our commission rates are concerned, those are largely driven because the new business growth is higher, and it might be a reflection of that. There is no specific negotiation in terms of higher commissions or anything inside. Aim is to reduce, wherever opportunities are, right?[inaudible audio] It's not go higher. What was the other question? I'm sorry. [Indemnity.] Got it. Does that answer your questions?
Yeah. And no, I had just one last question that, you know, in the fresh business growth that you are, you know, reporting, you know, and that there has been improvement, just wanted to understand what would be the proportion of quoting inwards within that space?
Oh, okay. Inward quoting, honestly, as we have articulated in the past, you know, we have been little conservative as far as inward quotability is concerned. It is still, less than 10% of our overall, you know, business, new business coming in. But having said that, we are definitely, creating strategies to go more aggressive in this area, given the changes in the regulations, especially in the markets where we are comfortable with the loss ratios. So that is what we are planning to do, and you will see some action in this area going forward.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shreya Shivani from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. Sir, I have one question regarding the larger healthcare ecosystem. So last year, we had heard that the hospital rates had revised upwards after the COVID, and they never corrected, and they remained elevated. Has there been any movement in hospital rates, hospital prices that you are seeing this year, or this quarter? Any trend that you can help us understand? And is that, as in, is that one of the reasons why you're taking another price hike or?... That's my question, yeah.
Hi, Shreya. A very, very relevant, you know, question in terms of the overall, you know, ecosystem in which we operate. We see continued, you know, activity or rather, focus by the healthcare industry on this side in terms of, you know, attempts to keep boosting their revenue and come across cases of waste and abuse, as well as, you know, efforts to smart billing and inflation of bills and so on. But we are up to the task, and we've been managing it.
But yes, there is a concern on this side, and therefore, the larger issue of pricing of products effectively, you know, has to be addressed, and that's what we are doing, with, you know, the kind of plans we have on some of the products. At the same time, if you look at some of the other activities that we've been doing on the wellness intervention side, is a way to ensure that, you know, we can keep our customers healthier and keep them out of the hospital. So that's what the overall attempt is, and keep working on these efficiencies.
So, sir, is there any color that you can give us on whether the hospital prices are worse or increasing in the metro Tier 1 cities, more in Tier 3, 4 cities, or does it vary by geography? Or do you see all-India, pan-India, there is an increase in pricing or jack-up in pricing for hospitals? Is there any color you can help us with on this?
... There are multiple factors that go into it. You know, we see it happening more in the metros than the sub-metros as of now, but it's also a function of the demand and supply, right? So there are specific geographies where there could be monopolistic situations of one good hospital or two good hospitals present in the geography, and they try to dictate. So all of that happens, but then there are ways of managing that. So, you know, we also are trying to work for influencing, you know, our customers to choose wisely as to which network to go to.
Correct. Correct. And so, just, just, trying to understand if, if the health insurers, like the PSU health insurers, have this one group where they negotiate with, hospitals. I think it's called GIPSA or something. So do the private health insurers, private general insurers, do you guys also have certain or are you planning to have, like, a... I don't know what to call it, like, a group which can negotiate with the hospital bodies or, because if you individually keep, negotiating, obviously the negotiating power decreases. But, yeah, is there anything of that sort in plans?
Yeah. So, you would be aware that, you know, the IRDAI council has taken this initiative, and, as an industry, we want to sort of take this up, across, the segment and, you know, work on a common platform. Some, some progress has happened on that, but, you know, given the, nature of the complex issue, it will take some time for it to sort of, start manifesting. But yeah, that's an effort that we are making along with the council.
Got it, sir. Very useful. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Madhukar Ladha from Nuvama Wealth Management. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, and thank you for taking my question. First, in volume terms, can you tell me what is the renewal rate? And second, what is the total volume growth, year-over-year? Yeah, that's my first question. And second, can you tell me what is the equity percentage in the investment book, and what were the capital gains this year versus last year? And lastly, you know, you've reclassified the channel mix. You've got ABCD now. So if you could give me comparable numbers on a year-over-year basis and also similar numbers for FY 2023 and 2024, that would be helpful.
Yeah. Let me answer this question on equity. Our current non-fixed income book is approximately 12% of the portfolio, and this is having, approximately 11%-12% kind of gains mark to market.
So, so 12% of portfolio and gain, so this is on cost basis, are you saying? And then 11%-12% additional. I didn't understand that. I'm sorry.
Market price divided by cost price, so the gain which we calculate, the gain divided by the cost price is 12%. That's it.
Okay. On cost and market value basis, it is 12% of the portfolio?
Yeah, yeah. No, no, no, not market value. When we calculate, we calculate based on the book values. All the calculations are on book values. Book value basis, it is 12% of the AUM, and mark-to-market gains are approximately 11%-12% of the book value.
Understood. And what is the capital gains proportion in the PNL?
In the P&L, capital gains proportion would be slightly less than, put together, slightly less than 25 basis points.
No. Can you give an absolute number, sorry, for this quarter versus last quarter?
No, versus I don't have the data in front of me. This quarter, absolute gains in the book put together is approximately INR 10 crores.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Moving to the next question.
See the volume, so the retail business, we have grown by 15%. The volume and the value growth is in 50/50%. And that is because we have taken a price which is last year, it was in favor of volume growth, but we see volume growth coming in, correct.
I think total volume growth is about 7.5%, year-over-year.
Yeah. 7% and 8% value.
Okay. Okay. And, and in renewal business, what is the volume renewal percentage, if you could give that?
See the historical average is around 86%-88%. We are we continue to be in that range of renewable growth. Last year it was slightly lower because of FHO also, but this year again it is back on track.
It's 86%-88%?
Correct.
Okay. Okay, great. And finally on the ABCD, if you could give, like, you know, historical reclassified numbers.
See, the channel mix continue to be the same. So agency, which was 82%, is now 80% for this quarter. Banca and alternate is in the range of 6%-7%. So, so while the smaller channels are growing faster, the proportion is- .. still in the range of last year, you know, there's a 1%-2% shift between agency, banca, and this.
Okay.
It will be part of it.
I'll take this offline. Okay, thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aditi Joshi from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you for taking my question. Good morning. Just I have one question, and, actually it was, very interesting to hear from you that, you're started planning for the composite licensing scenario, if at all it happens. So, just firstly, can you please help us elaborate more as in what sort of product structure you are planning under this scenario, as in, likely in terms of, let's say, duration or just broadly mortality, morbidity sort of structure, whatever you can share at this point? And secondly, related to this one, in terms of timeline, are you able to, can you please share your thoughts as in, by when, if at all, this happens, could happen? So these are my questions. Thank you.
Thank you for the question. I think, see, as far as the composite business opportunity is concerned, we are very seriously evaluating our op- you know, adjacencies, because we believe that amongst all insurance companies, Star has has maximum engagement with its customers. Know their customers well, customers know the brand well. And so if there are any opportunities to cross-sell and sell additional protection plans to give a more comprehensive protection, we are definitely up for it. As Aditya mentioned in his opening remarks, we have engaged BCG to develop the strategy for us, and we are looking at a overall strategy and various profit pools available in the vi- life insurance business or the general insurance business, where we can have a you know, play.
I think, this is work in progress, so, it may take a few months for us to give you more, insights about what we intend to do. As far as the regulations are concerned, see, this has been under discussion for the last, two years or so. The expectation is that it will come into, you know, the parliament, very soon, the bill will be presented. But we do not know, that is only for the government to act upon. But we are, you know, keeping our preparations, totally, ready, and whenever it becomes a reality, we will be ready to go.
Okay, sure. Got it. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nitesh from Investec. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. So, first is, what is the growth in fresh premium in this quarter?
As, as mentioned, the retail health fresh premium growth was in the mid-teens.
Mid-teens.
The overall growth was in the range of 18% or 20% or more.
Sure, sure. And secondly, the cost of 66 basis points that we have allocated in the claims. So does it mean that claims ratio has structurally increased by 50-60 basis points because this cost will always be in claims versus previous years?
Sorry, I couldn't get the question fully. You mean the cost of the wellness activities, you mean?
Yeah, the cost of wellness activities that we are allocating to claims ratio, does it mean that the claims ratio will be 60 basis points higher than the previous years, because of this allocation, and the like-to-like comparison is 60 basis points lower? Is that right way to look about it at?
So the increase that is shown is compared to last year Q1. We had increased our initiatives in the later part of the year also. So on a year-on-year basis, the increase will not be that much. It's Q1 versus Q1 comparison actually.
On a year-on-year basis, last year, 66 basis points. There was no wellness cost, which was allocated to claims. This year, there's 66 basis points allocated to claims, right? Or...
For quarter, actually.
For the quarter. Hello?
Yes, for the quarter one. If you quarter one, yeah. So I think by,
Going forward, also the similar cost will be allocated to that, right?
So yes, as we keep investing in this wellness and prevention activities, there will be allocation of these costs to claims, as we keep investing. But we will, we will showcase this, you know, separately, to give a better clarity on actual claims and investments in prevention and wellness.
Okay. Sure, sir. That's it from my side.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dipanjan Ghosh from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, sir. So just, two, three questions from my side. First, you know, it has been almost, you know, 14 months now since you took price hike on the FHO, and in this quarter, you have at least two full months of, where the NAP has flowed into your, books. Now, have you done some back testing in terms of how the customer cohort that stayed back with you, is behaving compared to, let's say, pre-price hike versus post-price hike, just from a PNL claims ratio perspective? You know, the reason I ask this is because this will give us, some idea as analysts and investors to really understand, you know, how price hike cycles really behave from a PNL standpoint, for a 12- to 24-month period.
Second, your renewal ratio on the retail side, what you mentioned is that your policy persistency has gone up by 100 basis points. So what the— and while your overall persistency numbers are down, which I basically means that the high-ticket customers or high-income insured customers who are coming into either bank or maybe digital has kind of gone. So can you give some color how this changing dynamic from the persistency side versus also on the new business growth side really has an implication on your claims ratio going ahead? And finally, on your porting strategy, you mentioned that you have devised a new strategy where you'll be refocusing a bit for inward porting.
I wanted to understand that your historical view on that has been that, you know, porting can lead to some of the profitability dilution, given that, there is no waiting period and all those things. So what's the new strategy you're devising, which channels will be driving it, out there? And one data keeping question, you used to give a number of SME mix within your group health business, as per MIS. Can you share that data?
What was the last point please?
You used to mention the SME, SME business, mix within your group health business. That used to be a, presentation in the slide historically. So just wanted to get that number for the first quarter.
Yeah, we'll share the number with you. As far as our renewal retention are concerned, I think I've clarified, we are very, you know, watchful of our renewals, and we do not see any deterioration in our renewal book. In fact, we are seeing an improvement in the number of policies. As far as the, because the GWP renewals, the value growth is largely because of the price increase that we had, the base effect, that is playing out this year. But, as I've mentioned, traditionally, digital channels and bank insurance channels have a little lower retention rate persistency for the entire industry as well as for us. So as that book is becoming largest, it is showing some effect on the overall persistency.
But we are very confident that our customers, you know, retention is on track, and we do not see any threat there. As far as the porting strategy is concerned, we continue to maintain our stance that porting, portability is a high-risk business, but with the data and the learnings that we have and the distribution we have in our, you know, all parts of the country, we are quite aware of areas where we should avoid porting and areas where we have more aggressive. So we are planning to go aggressive in those areas where we believe the loss ratio will not be as worse. But our business strategy is very clearly growth with profits, and we are not going to dilute that strategy at any cost.
Sure. On the FHO, question is the first question.
See, on the FHO pricing scheme, we have seen an improvement in the on, premium. Now, if we see, you know, the increase in loss ratio was an [industry led] phenomenon. Which the published results see that, you know, the loss ratios have increased anywhere between 3%-6%. But on our health portfolio, you know, by overall loss ratio increase is 2.2% between, split between health and personal accident, the health loss ratio increase around 1.3%. You know, and which is, which is also a part of our measures that we've taken in terms of preventive health care. So we see a good benefit coming in terms of quality of improvement, and, and that is where we are able to control the loss ratio within the, the market development.
But, so my question was basically, let's say if you were to, you know, just hypothetically, you have done the exercise on back testing. If you just kind of let's superimpose a similar sort of claim incident on the existing customer cohort that remained with you, and now that you have seen a 14-month window, would the portfolio behavior be better after the price hike or, or significantly better? Any qualitative comments without going into the numbers?
See, I mean, on a like-to-like basis, with, with the price increase, the loss ratio has come down. You know, but, if you talk only about FHO as a product, you know, there are certain ways the portfolio behaves. You know, it's a function of new and old, and what we have been maintaining is, earlier it only had FHO as a single family floater product. Now we have Comprehensive Health Insurance and family floater product. The new business is coming into this product, while the old business continues to be in FHO. So there are certain, certain changing dynamics of the product portfolio is there. So to just pinpoint the number of FHO loss ratio and is a very difficult thing. But we see a, an improvement in the overall loss ratio, which absorbs the price.
Got it, sir. And just on the SME mix, would you give it, now or I can take it later on?
We'll give it to you later. Sure, we'll get it.
Thank you, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Sanket Godha from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you, thank you for the opportunity. So I have three key questions. Sir, Anand, you said that porting is closer to 10% of the new business premium. And you also highlighted that new business premium growth is around 18 odd %. So if I remove porting from your new business numbers, on like-for-like basis, excluding porting, excluding porting, compared to the last year, whether the growth will be lower than the overall, overall growth what you have reported in retail of 15 odd %?
No, Sanket, last year also we had some share of porting. There were 40 in porting, right? So, we, our books were always less than 10% and continues to be that way. But as we speak, I think we are going to go little aggressive in certain markets where we see the opportunities, and the loss ratios more comfortable.
... When you say the three geographies, largely it will be South India because it is believed that South India is relatively healthy compared to North on claims at least, I need to say. So, so-
Yeah, yeah. You are right. South India, East India. North India for me is like an interesting, that is how it is going on there, so that's not what we want to get into. We are more selective in our business, you know, onboarding.
Got it, got it. And you said that your claims have increased to 66 basis points. Or your wellness cost is 63 basis points of your claims ratio. So if I do a back calculation, it is around INR 23-24 crores. So if I analyze that number, it is like 100 odd crores, or INR 95-100 odd crores. So just wanted to understand how you want to see this number to behave.
I mean, if this INR 100 crores number, if it is annual number, how it will play, and eventually, this will increase the claims on the top line, but improvement in the claims, how, I mean, how you compensate this INR 100 crores, what we are going to spend on wellness going ahead?
So the wellness intervention is a long-term play. We do not expect any immediate returns, but what we track is, are we able to get data which can help us in better customer engagement in terms of, you know, in making sure that the health profile of these customers improves. That's what the team drives. Second thing is, are we also able to make sure that our condition management programs are reducing, you know, repeat hospitalizations? These are the numbers that we're tracking right now, but in the long term, I think these investments will pay off. So right now, we are not looking at an immediate ROI on what these investments are going to deliver, but we believe that in the long-term interest of the business, this is essential.
Got it. And, Anand. You said that you will take two, three products a price hike in the current year. So if you can quantify what proportion of your total premium from the products where you will take price hike?
Approximately 30% of our product portfolio.
Now, we're planning to take the price hike at about 30%+ of our current portfolio. And the average price hike we're looking at between 10%-15%. So roughly about, you know, anywhere between four, around 4% on the overall portfolio.
Got it. But just wanted to understand, though it is today 30, but typically customers switch from one particular product to another product when the price hike happens. So if I factor in that impact, which you might have historically done it, so whether this price hike will be even still 4, 4.5, or it will be marginally lower than the basic?
This is the realized hike that we are looking at. And we've had a lesser basis, the last year's experience, so we want to optimize increase so as to maximize the, you know, yield out of the overall increase.
Got it. And lastly, can you-
Sorry to interrupt, sir. This is Niket. Could you please fall back in the question queue?
Sure, sure, sure, sure. Yeah, yeah, sure.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nischint Chawathe from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for taking my question. You know, this 0.66% of OPD, telemedicine, et cetera, does this also include claims management expenses?
Sorry, could you be a bit louder, please?
Yeah. So, yeah. Does this also include claims, claims management expenses?
Yeah, yeah. The overall-
And-
You mean the overall loss ratio, right?
No, no, no. I mean the 0.66%, you know, where you say that this is OPD, telemedicine, and et cetera, does this include claims management or is that separate?
No, Nischint, claims management expenses is separate. That is, that is 1% of our GWP. This is over and above.
Got it. And that 1% would have been, would have been sort of almost similar last year and this year?
Yes, that's right.
This 0.66 is completely additional this quarter, which was probably not there last year. Is that what you're trying to say?
Yeah, I think a very small percentage last year, because we had started with this initiative in Q1. But yes, I think in comparison to last year, this is additional.
Okay. And just one, you know, you seem to have stepped up on the group business. So, you know, the increase in group business numbers that we can see, this is all employer-employee?
This is a combination of Employer-Employee as well as non-Employer-Employee from the bank segment. You know, there is a lot of focus on the benefit plans, which are profitable.
If I have to sort of look at the loss ratios in both the products, the loss ratios will be more or less similar. If you can quantify, you know, the impact of this product portfolio change on the loss ratio for the quarter.
There is some impact because while the loss ratio is higher in the employer-employee segment, the expense ratio is lower. It's around 0.15-0.20 when it comes to quarter one, in terms of shift between loss ratio and expense ratio.
Sorry, so the, the point what you're trying to say is that probably your claims ratio would have been lower by 15 basis points if the product portfolio had been similar. Is that what you're trying to say?
Correct.
Okay, got it. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraint, that was the last question for today's conference call. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Nilesh Kambli for closing comments.
Thank you very much for joining the call early morning. We continue to grow our business with a focus on profitability and ensuring healthy India. We look forward to, you know, coming quarter. Thank you very much.
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 lines. Thank you.