Street View: India's SBI Life draws bullish calls on improving premium growth, stable margins

Sbi Life Insurance

29/01/2026 04:20

** SBI Life Insurance's SBIL.NS Q3 profit rises 5%, helped by higher premium collections as tax cuts spurred retail demand

** Annualised premium equivalent (APE) sales rose nearly 25% to 86 billion rupees ($935 million) in Q3 while value of new business (VNB) climbed 22.5%, according to Reuters calculations

** Shares dip 2.2% to 2,007 rupees

Q3 MOMENTUM LIFTS CONFIDENCE IN GROWTH, MARGINS

** Jefferies ("Buy", PT: 2,510 rupees) says improvement in APE growth is encouraging, but markets expected a slight upgrade as co's reiterated growth guidance of 13-14%

** Morgan Stanley ("Overweight", PT: 2,550 rupees) sees co's positioning and risk-reward as best in their life insurance coverage, from a medium- to long-term perspective

** Emkay ("Buy",PT: 2,450 rupees) increases SBIL's APE estimates by ~1% while VNB margin estimates unchanged, resulting in a ~1% increase in VNB estimates over FY26-28

** CLSA ("Outperform", TP: 2,400 rupees) says co on track to deliver slightly above its APE growth guidance while keeping margins stable

($1 = 91.9690 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru)

 ((UrviManoj.Dugar@thomsonreuters.com;))