Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Star Health and Allied Insurance Company Limited Q1 FY 2027 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. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Devyanshi Dave from Adfactors PR, Investor Relations team. Thank you, and over to you, Ms. Dave.
From the senior management we have Mr. Anand Roy, Director and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Amitabh Jain, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Himanshu Walia, Executive Director and Chief Marketing Officer. Mr. Nilesh Kambli, Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Aneesh Srivastava, Chief Investment Officer, and Mr. Soumyajit Bhattacharya, Head, Investor Relations. Before we begin the conference call, I would like to mention that some of the statements made during today's call may be forward-looking in nature, including those related to 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. I would like to mention that some of the statements made in today's conference involves uncertainties. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Roy.
Thank you very much, a very good morning to all of you. Thank you for joining the Star Health earnings call for the first quarter of the financial year 2026, 2027. Before we get into our quarterly performance highlights, let me acknowledge a very significant milestone in the journey of Star Health. On 18th May 2026, we completed two decades of service, helping more than 2.8 crore lives during these last 20 years navigate their health challenges with confidence and financial security. The work of evangelizing the concept of retail health insurance has not been easy, but also immensely fulfilling for the Star Health team.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank my team members of almost more than 19,000 employees for their sincerity and hard work over the last 20 years. For those who are interested, Star Health is also the largest employer in the entire general insurance space, even while counting public sector companies. We have a very dedicated and committed team. When we started with retail health insurance was neither an established product nor a market. However, in the last 20 years, through the hard work of the team members, we are the country's largest retail health insurer. As a category leader, we regard deepening health insurance penetration as both a responsibility and of course, a very multi-decadal growth opportunity. The operating environment for retail health growth remains conducive.
Health insurance is the fastest-growing segment within the non-life space, supported by structural drivers and policy initiatives. The impact of enhanced affordability due to the GST waiver is very evident through category growth, with majority of our fresh business emerging from first-time buyers. We report our statutory financials on IND-AS basis following the regulator's guidelines on IND-AS transition. We have been reporting on this basis voluntarily for several quarters and have consistently maintained it to be the appropriate economic lens for a health insurance franchise and aligned to the global best practices. Coming to the quarterly performance highlights. On the operating performance, as we had communicated last quarter, we will state our business numbers on both reported 1/ N and also on N basis. Following are the highlights of our performance for Q1 FY 2027.
On a 1/N basis, the gross written premium increased 19% YoY to INR 4,287 crore. On N basis, the gross written premium was INR 4,672 crore, an increase of 19% YoY again. Fresh retail health GWP increased 37% YoY to INR 730 crore. On N basis, the fresh retail health GWP was INR 1,039 crore, an increase of 35% YoY . Our new to insurance mix was 94% on fresh retail business compared to 90% in Q1 FY 2026. The underwriting results of the company for quarter one was INR 111 crore compared to INR 16 crore in quarter one FY 2026. This marks the fourth successive quarter of improvement in core underwriting profitability, underscoring the consistency of performance. Combined Insurance Service Ratio, CISR, improved by 1.7% from 98.7% in Q1 FY 2026 to 97% in current quarter Q1 FY 2027. The investment income for the quarter increased 10% YoY to INR 634 crore.
The profit after tax for the quarter increased 25% YoY to INR 550 crore. For the right perspective on profitability insulated from short-term mark-to-market volatility, we introduced the concept of normalized PAT from last quarter, pegged at a normalized annual investment yield of 8%. Under the normalized framework, our profit after tax increased 44% year-over-year to INR 386 crore, with an annualized ROE increasing from 12.2% in Q1 FY 2026 to 15.6% in Q1 of FY 2027. On the business side of things, we continue to build a diversified and granular retail franchise. We remain focused on disciplined and prudent risk selection in geography, segments, channels, and products that meet our defined ROE thresholds. Our retail market share was 29% in Q1 of FY 2027 compared to 31% in Q1 of last fiscal.
This is partly impacted by share of long-term policies and consequent reporting implications on N and 1/ N basis, and clean like-for-like comparability will be restored only by FY 2028. More meaningfully, it also reflects our strategy, a very disciplined focus on preferred segments, prudent underwriting, and an avoidance of riskier pools. An update on the distribution network. Our proprietary channels, which is the agency and digital D2C, contributed 90%+ of overall retail business. This proprietary distribution gives us very good leverage over customer selection, quality of sales, and economics of acquisition. We continue to scale our industry-leading agency network, adding around 20,000 new agents during this quarter to take the overall count to 8.5 lakh agents, along with 19% YoY improvement in agent productivity. Agency is deepening penetration where it matters the most.
Fresh business growth from non-metro geographies is three and a half times that of growth in the metro geographies. Digital B2C continues to be our fastest growing profitable channel. Within overall digital business, 74% of the fresh business now originates from our own B2C platform. B2C fresh business grew 142% year-over-year, with 98% of customers being new to insurance. Beyond our proprietary channels, partnerships, bank assurance, and alternate channels also stay focused on profitable segments. Within the corporate groups, SME business through agency remains the priority for the company. An update on the underwriting claims and customer-focused metrics. The improvement trajectory in our underwriting profitability is an accumulation of several layers applied consistently. Strengthened underwriting, portfolio optimization towards preferred segments, risk-based pricing, reduction of fraud, waste, and abuse, and institutionalization of a wellness-based consumer ecosystem.
Our home healthcare and telemedicine capabilities saw significant traction, extending our ability to manage fever and infection-related cases very efficiently, thereby improving customer convenience. As we enter quarter two, we remain watchful of dengue, malaria, fever, and infectious disease outbreaks with our telemedicine services on hand to support the customers at a call. Our consumer focus metrics continue to demonstrate improvement trends. Our retail claim settlement ratio increased by 1% over quarter one FY 2026, which now stands at 91% for quarter one FY 2027. Our renewal ratio increased by 3% YoY to 102% for quarter one of FY 2027. Our company level NPS improved by 12 points to 65 points at June 2026. We settled over 9.5 lakh claims during this quarter, of which more than 80% of claims were cashless through our network of hospitals.
Cashless settlement delivers more predictable outcomes for the customers and builds a more constructive long-term relationship with our healthcare provider partners as well. As a responsible retail health insurer, we believe that provider partners and payers jointly share a responsibility to shape a healthcare ecosystem that is more effective, more efficient, and most importantly, more affordable to the customers. The digital and AI investments remains a key strategic initiative for us, and we continue to embed digital across the insurance value chain with clear focus on three outcomes: superior risk selection, faster customer service, and a structurally lower cost to serve our customers. Our greatest advantage is the proprietary data we have built over the last 20 years. This is a unique asset that is difficult to replicate and provides a significant competitive advantage.
Our longitudinal data and in-house analytical expertise are further strengthened through our technology partnerships, bringing global capability to bear on the India data that we have at scale. The intent remains singular. Conversion of two decades of our experience into a durable underwriting and service advantage. On claims, for example, we are in the process of layering generative AI over and above our existing AI/ML analytical layers to drive greater precision of claims operations. Our AI/ML-driven analytics is already showing encouraging results with respect to mitigation of fraud, waste, and abuse. Our distribution app, ATOM Pro, was recognized by The Economic Times in the BFSI FinNext Awards 2026 under the InsurTech Product Excellence of the Year. 97% of our new applications are now digitally sourced. An always-on work stream continues to enhance the app capabilities.
On the customer side, our customer app has scaled to close to 16 million downloads and over 1.5 million monthly active users. Wellness initiatives are anchoring the engagement of our customers across the ecosystem. The adoption of self-service features such as renewals, claim submission, and also multiple service requests on our app continues to build steadily. In conclusion, before I close, let me place this quarter in context. 18 months ago, we set out on a course correction without recourse to short-term optical measures. FY 2026 demonstrated a result through a INR 350 crore upswing in the underwriting profit. This quarter's result is further evidence that this is being sustained. The results over the trailing 4Q are the accumulation of a disciplined model built for long-term, sustainable, and value-driven outcomes.
As we look ahead. Our strategy rests on three priorities: driving sustainable growth and expanding the health insurance penetration by deepening our proprietary distribution channels where we have greater control over customer acquisition, engagement, and quality of portfolio. Second, we have to enhance the core underwriting profitability through rigorous portfolio management, leveraging the data and analytics across the risk life cycle to improve our risk selection and claims outcomes. Third, we remain committed to customer centricity, investing in technology-led capabilities to deliver a faster, simpler, and more seamless experience across the customer touch points. Together with these priorities will keep us on a path of profitable, sustainable growth, reinforcing our leadership position in India's health insurance market. I had begun by noting that we completed 20 years this year.
We believe that retail health in India over the next 20 years will be much larger and more consequential than the last 20. We at Star Health intend to remain the company that families turn to on the day it matters. Thank you for your continued trust in Star Health. With that, we will open the floor for questions. Thank you very much.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on your touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove 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. The first question comes from the line of Supratim Datta with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Thanks a lot for the opportunity, good morning to everyone. I have three questions. Starting with the growth piece. The insurance revenue growth for this quarter was 13.4% versus a GWP growth of 19%. Just wanted to understand that how should one think about another GWP growth translating into the insurance revenue growth over a period of time? If you could give us some color by when this could start converging, that would be helpful. Two, on the loss ratio side, this is the fourth quarter where you have shown a YoY improvement in loss ratio. Just wanted to understand that what are the levers for loss ratio improvement from here that one could use? And two, if you could give us some color around the telemedicine piece. This is something that you have been championing over the last two, three years.
Just wanted to understand how many claims are now settled through this telemedicine versus two years back. Lastly, the other key driver of your combined ratio improvement has been expenses. On a two-year stack basis, it has improved by around 100 basis points. Should one think about further expense ratio improvement from here, or should it largely stabilize? Those would be my three questions. Thank you.
See, on the insurance revenues, the growth for the quarter is 13.4%. We believe it should gradually increase because the growth has an element of long-term policies as well. We believe it should start touching 15%, 16% as we keep on moving ahead through the quarters. That's one part of it. On the expense ratio, we have continuously maintained that the investment that we are doing in tech and digitization, the focus on efficiency and productivity will ensure that 30- 40 basis point improvement in the expense ratio is something which will get consistently over the years, and that is what we work towards. On the loss ratio, telemedicine.
On the loss ratio, the levers are the same that we've been talking about over the last one and a half years, that it's a combined 360-degree approach that we've taken of improving the portfolio quality, the pricing, and all the initiatives on claims, starting from network management to wellness, and like you quoted, the teleconsultation piece. All of this is contributing a bit to the improvement in the loss ratio, and this is what we want to do on a sustained basis. As far as teleconsultations are concerned, this quarter, we could do about 50,000 of them, compared to about 9,000 odd last year. That's a huge scale-up that we've been able to achieve quarter to quarter. Last quarter also, we told you about a significant number. All of this is coming together now and starting to give us some good results.
Thank you. That's very clear. Just one follow-up on that. Now that we are getting into a seasonally higher claim period because of vector-borne diseases, just wanted to understand what are the trends that you are seeing. If you could give us some color, that would be helpful.
As you rightly said, this is a season where these medical infectious diseases go up, and that's happening this year as well. Going to be seen. As I said, given our focus on wellness and especially teleconsultation and home health care, we seem to be on track in terms of whatever we expected as outcomes.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Avinash Singh with Emkay. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Good morning. Thanks for the opportunity. Good set of numbers. A few questions. The first one is, the new fresh premium growth looks pretty impressive. Now, probably from H2, as the GST things comes into base. How do you see this to play out? I am asking this because this probably fresh premium growth is also one piece that is kind of helping in terms of the claims ratio, because the fresh premium growth typically comes at a lower claims ratio. How do you see this fresh premium growth trend to continue in H2? That is one. Second piece is on pricing. Now things are looking on track. Of course, there will be typically your action depending upon age cohort and all. Now the regulator anyway has permitted to take pricing action on an annual basis as and when we feel kind of necessary.
Are you taking that pricing action in some of the cohorts or is it like right now pricing is adequate and just like age band led cohort pricing changing? Thirdly, typically, what would be the kind of ballpark number for losses or claims ratio share from this dengue, malaria, chikungunya in, say, Q2 and on an FY basis? Typical. Thanks.
Avinash, yeah. Post the GST waiver, definitely there was a significant jump in the growth rates for the entire industry and for us as well in H2 of last year. We do see some moderation in growth rate, which will happen. I think our strategy of focusing on acquiring business with certain set objectives in certain markets will continue. Share of fresh business, hopefully we will be able to sustain even after that. Maybe the growth rate optically may definitely moderate for everyone, including for Star Health. As far as the pricing strategy is concerned, we continue to focus on an annual price strategy wherever it is required. Obviously, it has to be justified product by product in terms of actuarial evaluation and stuff. That will continue.
While we do the pricing strategy, we will try to give benefits to non-claimants through some discounts, which we are trying to bring in. As far as the loss ratio is concerned, Q2 generally is a higher loss ratio for health insurance business, as you are aware. We expect the same trends to continue this year as well.
Got it. Thank you.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Swarnabh Mukherjee with 360 ONE Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity and congrats on a good set of numbers. Sir, I just wanted to understand the comment you made related to the 30, 40 basis point continued improvement on the loss ratio. Just if you could highlight what are the levers that you have, because we have already seen, I think over the last four quarters between 100 - 300 basis points kind of improvement on a year-on-year basis. Over and above this 30, 40 basis points, which levers are you pressing to get that? Previously also, if you could maybe give us some indication that off the drop, how much has been impact of some ballpark contribution of, say, severity reducing, frequency reducing, NWA reducing, and new to insurance customers coming in, all these parameters, which has been a larger contributor, if you can give some color. That is one.
Second is, the acquisition expense, if I were to look at as a percentage of insurance revenue, that has remained fairly stable. How should we think about it? Is there any efficiency that can be generated from this side in terms of combined ratio, if you could highlight? In light of any impending regulatory action that is there on the commission side, do we expect to see any benefit coming out of this? This is the second. Thirdly, sir, also wanted your view that at a steady state, excluding any kind of seasonality that is there, on this index basis, how should we think about the ROE profile of our business? These will be my questions, sir. Thank you.
Swarnabh, let me clarify. I think the comment made by Nilesh was not about loss ratio improvement, it was about expense ratio improvement through the investments we are making in technology. We are not giving any guidance for loss ratio improvement. That's point one. As far as the acquisition costs are concerned, Star Health is probably the only company in the SAHI space which is already operating within the expense of management limits set out by the regulator, and we keep improving that. We will await and see what the regulatory guidelines are, and then we will be able to maybe give you better clarity on our strategy as far as acquisition expenses is concerned. Index ROE, we are already declaring it very transparently in our investor deck, both on the investment piece as well as on the underwriting piece.
Any particular clarification you have on that, you can reach out to us separately. We'll try to give you that.
Okay, sir. Got it. If you could, on the components of loss ratio improvement, if you can give some broad color on which are the major levers, that would be helpful.
Like I said in the earlier question that it's a 360-degree approach, right? There are bits of all of them coming together. Whether it's repricing of our portfolio that we started two years ago, then the portfolio selection, the mix of business geographies that we're focusing, the efficient claims management in terms of better fraud control and overall governance on claims. Of course, the big piece on wellness and telemedicine, the way we have executed. All of that is coming together now, and it's showing up in the loss ratio improvement. Specifically for this quarter, obviously, it will be the impact of telemedicine that will be there because we do see increased incidents of infectious disease that happen. That component might play out more.
Okay, sir.
One more thing. To avoid this impact of month-to-month, that is why we are talking about normalized PAT, to avoid this volatility in our PAT numbers. We'll consistently follow it. We started this since March 26.
Sir, what I wanted to understand was that, given that the actions on the portfolio and the business are now visible and our profitability levels have materially turned out to be positive, given that there is a seasonality also in profitability across quarter, that's why I wanted your view on ROE. I understand the 1Q numbers that you have put in, but on a steady state basis, that was my query.
On a steady state basis, we have articulated clearly that all the efforts that the organization is taking is to deliver a mid to high teens ROE. Structurally, you can see that moving in that direction over the last three to four quarters. I think that would be our strategy going forward as well. We don't want to give any number in particular, but that is the glide path that we are going towards.
Okay, sir. Got it. Very helpful. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Shreya Shivani with Nomura. Please go ahead.
Hello. Sorry. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on a good quarter. My first question is on the reinsurance bit. We don't have the Schedule VI disclosure. I just wanted to understand the biggest change in your expense ratio that we have seen, the delta on year-over-year basis, has actually come from reinsurance. How will that, as a percentage, move through the quarter, given that if you write more group, probably you'll be reinsuring more, or should we take the first quarter reinsurance expense and that should be the steady state for the remaining three quarters? My second question is on the growth outlook in terms of now you're repricing your products annually.
How much portion of your products get repriced in the first quarter, or is it fair to say that through the year, given that you have a larger retail book, through the year, your policies keep getting repriced? Those will be my two questions. Thank you so much.
On the reinsurance bit, if you remember, we had done a voluntary total treaty in 2023, 2024 and 2024, 2025. This was a three-year treaty for long-term business. The impact of that treaty is fading out, we are getting some benefits, and hence this impact should keep on going down. On the obligatory side also, we are trying to negotiate with GIC Re , we believe there should be some benefits coming out of it during the year as well. Reinsurance cost as a business will keep on coming down for us.
Pricing, basically we have a set calendar on which we work, basis the last pricing that we took in a particular product, that is something that works out during the year. That is what will happen in this year as well. It's very well done in terms of actually finding out which are the products to take up and the ones which are already done, basis their annual cycle getting over, that's when we take it up.
Right. It is fair to say, through the year you will have a repricing. Some portion of your book will keep repricing through all the four quarters, right?
Whatever pricing impact we take, for example, something we did in Q4, the earned premiums will anyway show up during the subsequent quarters. The impact of a price change plays out any which way during the year. Specifically on a product that we take up, most of our pricing action of late has been in Q4 over the last couple of years. Yeah.
Right, because the customer gets a grace period, so it will happen through coming quarters, but most of the actions you're taking is in 4Q. Okay. That's fair enough.
Yeah.
Thank you. Very good. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Nitesh Jain with Investec. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. The first question is on this acquisition cost. I'm trying to understand the acquisition cost better. In the acquisition cost, I see three parts. One is employee expense, commission expense, and other expenses. Do we allocate entire employee expense in the acquisition cost? And what is the rationale for that if that is true?
Employee expenses now are in three parts. The claims related employee cost is part of the claims. The sales related employee cost is in part of acquisition cost. All the support services which are not directly related to sales or claims is part of the other expenses.
It is not that entire acquisition expense is going there. It is split into three parts. That's how we are doing it and in line with the Indian standard.
Yeah. This other expenses below the acquisition cost, the line item which is other revenue and expense, in that also there is a cost, right?
Yes.
How do you see insurance revenue growth for FY 2027, 2028? I think GDPI growth is quite healthy at 80%-90%, but insurance revenue growth is at around 13% for the quarter. How do you see the trend for FY 2027 and FY 2028 in terms of insurance revenue growth?
As we mentioned, this growth in business includes a portion of long-term also. The insurance revenue growth is nothing but a GEP on 1/365 basis, which will keep on following the growth in the top line. We'll see a 15%-16% growth going forward throughout the year, and it will keep on increasing in 2028 as well.
Okay, sure. Third question is, what is the share of fresh in insurance revenue for quarter one, FY 2027 versus full year FY 2026?
See, we have maintained that the share of fresh and renewable is around 20/80. That is what it reflects in the insurance revenue as well.
Ideally, the share of fresh would have been increasing, right? Because fresh growth is very strong for last many quarters.
The fresh growth is strong, as mentioned, it's a portion of long-term also which is coming through. That's not immediately recognized. It will recognize over a two year, three year period. It gradually increases.
Sir, the loss ratio improvement that we are seeing, almost 100 basis point loss ratio improvement, how you divide that in terms of loss ratio improvement in the fresh business versus the renewal business? Are we seeing similar 100 basis point in both or one segment is driving more? If you can give some color on that.
Yeah. If you want to split retail and group, as we had mentioned last year also, group business had an impact in Q1. The large part of the improvement is coming in group. As you mentioned, retail business is doing well for us and the reduction is marginal when it comes to quarter one.
Okay. Understood. Thank you, sir. That's it from my side. Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. Next question comes from the line of Sanketh Godha, Avendus Spark . Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. Nilesh, can you split your loss ratios into retail and group? The reason why I'm asking is that group component in GWP terms, at least last quarter in 1 Q FY 2026 was 5%. Now it looks closer to 2.5%. Just wanted to understand whether the group contribution coming down also played a role for improvement in the loss ratio at overall company level.
Yeah, there is some component of that. We've seen an improvement in the retail loss ratio also. It's not simply about group. Anyway, if you look at it now, the group component is very small, so by and large, the loss ratio is more representative of the retail book.
Retail is closer to 67.5-68 kind of a number, right then?
Yes, sir.
Yeah, in that range.
Understood. Second question, honestly, few questions I have more on accounting. I need one small clarification. Given we use PAA method in IFRS, ideally we should not have finance income or expense from insurance contracts, because that typically comes if you are using GMM or VFA or rather GMM. Just wanted to understand this number, around INR 38.8 crore, what you reported in current quarter is related to what?
Yeah. Sanketh, you know there is a concept of time value of money, when we do long-term contracts and the cash is received upfront, there is an accounting treatment when it comes in IFRS, even though we are following Premium Allocation Approach. This arises because of the long-term business done on a cash flow basis.
Nilesh, in simple words, it is the interest income earned on the advanced premium what you have collected, right? In simple words.
Yes. That's the time value of money.
Ideally it should be treated as investment income nature rather than underwriting nature, because we knocked off that number in underwriting. Just wanted clarification. It should be treated more like an investment or more like an underwriting number because it's ultimately the interest income.
Yeah. Sanketh, we can debate this in detail because it's quite technical. There are various clarification papers. We can get in touch with you and explain it.
Yeah, sure. Another question was that, Nilesh, I was looking into your detailed disclosure, annual disclosure. In the balance sheet, I don't see your outstanding DAC number. What you give is only flow number. If you can quantify your DAC number as on last year and in the current quarter or is it fair to say that given you have insurance contract liabilities and reported in the balance sheet and in the segmental reporting you have claims UPR kind of a number, and that is LFRC and LIC's outstanding figures. If I add those two numbers and calculate the balancing figure, that balancing figure is predominantly DAC outstanding in the balance sheet?
See, one can do the calculation, but DAC outstanding is a function of multiple things. The long-term business, short-term business, digital business, fresh and new. This has various components, Sanketh. It's not a straightforward number. Again, when we sit one-to-one, we can explain to you how it can be calculated based on the various numbers shown in the balance sheet.
Thank you. Mr. Godha, please rejoin the queue for more questions. A reminder to all the participants, please press star and one to ask a question. Next question comes from the line of Samaan Singh with PhillipCapital. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions and good set of results. Most of my questions have been asked. In terms of the retail loss ratio, if you can sort of break it into fresh book or the renewal book, that will be quite helpful. Second is on other expenses, which is like INR 283 crore, rose by around 23% YoY. What is driving this? It is like technological investment, ATOM Pro rollout or hiring. If you can provide some color on it. Third is on reported GWP is now on 1 / N basis. The underlying long-term policy sales mix is continuing to grow. What are the current mix of long-term in the fresh retail premium? These are the three questions.
We do not provide the breakup between fresh and renewal loss ratios. The pricing impact typically plays more out on the renewal book, whereas all the other elements of improvement plays out both on fresh and renewal, especially all the correction on sourcing, quality portfolio management, improved some insurers, etc. All of that plays out more on the fresh book. It works on both the components.
Okay.
On the expenses side, last year GST input credit was available on the operating expenses, especially the technology admin, all those things. This year, the input tax credit is not available. You see a 20% year-over-year increase in this segment. Again, it's a function of the annual wage hike also, which happens. All that is factored in.
As far as the long-term business is concerned, on the retail side, that's closer to about 40%.
Okay. I have one follow-up, if I may.
Yes.
Can I go ahead? Yeah. Just on the net reinsurance expensive savings that you highlighted earlier. You're saying that reinsurance expenses should ideally come down. Can you quantify in terms of how should we sort of build in for the full year compared to last year? It was around, I think, for 2026, it was around, I think, 0.9 percentage points. How should we see it for 2027, 2028?
Very difficult to comment at this moment, it should be in the range of 0.5%-0.6%.
Okay, thanks. That's quite helpful. All the best.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Ansuman, ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Good morning, thanks for the opportunity. My question is more on the distribution reforms that are expected. Obviously, we have a higher share of proprietary distribution. In case of commissions, any views on how the commissions can shape up? Both on there are talks of claim reforms also and commission reforms also. Any view on the regulatory landscape and how Star Health can benefit or kind of impact from that? That would be great. Thank you.
Yeah, Ansuman. Obviously we will not like to comment on what is a proposed regulation. We'll have to wait and see. As you rightly put it, Star Health probably is placed very uniquely with a 90% share of business coming from proprietary channels. We believe that we would be at an advantageous position in case of any reforms which comes in, and we are already operating within the regulatory norms as it stands today. We will wait and see, and then probably we'll comment after the regulation actually comes out. Thank you.
Thank you. Secondly, on the price hike. Is there any requirement for any? We have already taken a series of price hikes. The price hikes which we can expect from now will be more of a maintenance kind of a price hike or there is any portfolio which will require any step up kind of a price hike?
Sir, pricing is always based on the quality of the book and the expected loss ratios, and I think, the way we have been doing it will be more like, in your language, a maintenance one. We do not believe in knee-jerk reactions. We want to have a rhythm that works out throughout the year and for our customers as well.
Thank you. That will be all. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Prayesh Jain with Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Good morning, everyone. Just harping on the loss ratio front again. We saw about 100 basis points improvement. My sense is this could have been much better given that you had your fresh growth being so high, your direct channel growing at a faster pace. Thirdly, which is generally assumed to be a better quality business, your digital growing at a faster pace. You've taken price adjustments. In spite of all these factors, you've seen 100 basis points. Does that mean that the loss ratio on the back book is on an increasing trajectory? It appears so, given the dynamics that we've seen in this quarter.
Yeah, Prayesh, I think you have motivated us with lot of good things. We hope that this trajectory will continue, I think we have done quite well as compared to the legacy book that we have and the strategies that we have implemented over the last two years. We hope that things will improve as we go forward. Yes, it is a work in progress all the time. It is not a destination that we want to reach.
Okay. The other part was, what portion of our business is coming from senior citizens now?
Senior citizens hardly under 5% now for the overall book. We largely focused on younger cohorts of consumers.
Okay. Lastly on growth, you mentioned that the growth should improve going ahead. Don't you think the second half will have a high base of last year and that could also restrict growth? Rather than increasing, we could see tapering out or slowdown of growth.
We have been always clear that we want to grow in a sustainable and in a more focused manner. We have made multiple changes in our growth strategy, as you are aware, over the last one and a half to two years. We have executed our strategies almost to the perfection. I think that strategy will continue. We don't want to divert from that and chase growth for the sake of it. We are looking at a long-term, sustainable, profitable model that we have to create, and that's what is the focus.
I understand that. We've seen how you could've done it better. Just thinking from the GST tailwind that we got in the second half of last year, which created a very strong base. Second half of this year could possibly be on the lower side. That was my question, actually. Then possibly running into first half of FY 2028 as well. Does the kind of long-term policies kind of offset that high base and you will still maintain that kind of growth? Is that the way to think?
Yeah, I think that's the right way to put it.
Okay. That's all from my side. Thanks.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as there are no further questions, we have reached the end of question and answer session. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Nilesh Kambli for closing comments.
Thanks everyone for joining the call for Star Health. We believe that consistency is important. We'll focus on profitable growth. Thanks once again. Thank you.
Thank you. On behalf of Star Health and Allied Insurance Company Limited, the conference is. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.