A valuation of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LICI) built from its filed accounts — ten years of results, the method that fits this business, and what today's price already assumes.
Life Insurance Corporation of India cannot be judged the way other companies are.
Most of what Life Insurance Corporation of India is worth sits in policies it has already sold, which pay out over the next few decades. That does not show up in a normal profit figure, so comparing today's price against reported earnings — the way you would for a bank or a carmaker — gives a misleading answer. It is valued on the policies in force instead.
Revenue and earnings per share in ₹, return on equity and leverage as ratios — all from the filed statements.
Revenue and net profit as filed, in ₹ crore.
| Year | Revenue | Net profit | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2019 | 5,71,508 | 2,627 | 0.5% |
| Mar 2020 | 6,28,043 | 2,710 | 0.4% |
| Mar 2021 | 6,90,914 | 2,974 | 0.4% |
| Mar 2022 | 7,23,606 | 4,125 | 0.6% |
| Mar 2023 | 7,84,628 | 35,997 | 4.6% |
| Mar 2024 | 8,45,966 | 40,916 | 4.8% |
| Mar 2025 | 8,89,970 | 48,320 | 5.4% |
| Mar 2026 | 9,77,772 | 57,453 | 5.9% |
A life insurer is not valued on its reported profit. Most of its worth sits in policies already sold, which will pay out over decades — and writing new business actually reduces this year's reported profit while creating value that lasts. It is valued on embedded value plus the value of new business instead, which is the measure the industry itself uses.
Embedded value — the correct lens for a life insurerThe same valuation, run side by side.
Life Insurance Corporation of India vs HDFC LifeBoth life insurers, one state-owned and one private.→Life Insurance Corporation of India vs SBI LifeThe bank-backed private comparison on the same measures.→Life Insurance Corporation of India vs ICICI Prudential LifeA third private life insurer, on a smaller book.→It is computed from the filed financial statements using the method that fits this business (embedded value), with every assumption shown alongside the result. The per-share figure and the full working are in the report.
A price-to-earnings of 8.7 and price-to-book of 2.81 sit against a return on equity of 37.8%. Whether that multiple is deserved depends on how durable the return is — which is exactly what the valuation tests.
Revenue went from ₹5.72 lakh crore to ₹9.78 lakh crore over the period shown, while return on equity moved from 271.5% to 37.8%. Growing scale on a rising return is a very different proposition from growing scale on a falling one.
The dividend yield is 2.54%, which is a meaningful part of the total return.
Debt to equity stands at 0.00, down from 332.59 at the start of the period — the balance sheet is a core input to the cost of capital used here.
From published financial statements. The method is chosen to fit the business — a bank on excess return, a regulated utility on its rate base, a conglomerate by its parts — and every assumption is shown with its source. When the numbers do not support an estimate, no estimate is published. This is an educational research tool: it reports what the model computed and does not recommend buying or selling anything.
A cost of capital of 11.13%, growth drawn from the company's own record rather than from guidance, and the valuation method that fits the business. All of them are listed in the report, with how much each one moves the answer.