Performance highlights on a constant exchange rate basis for the three months ended 31 March 2026 (Q1): 

  • Q1 new business profit was up 10 per cent compared with the prior year to $686 million with growth across all segments.

  • Q1 APE sales grew 6 per cent to $1,823 million over the same period.

  • New business margin increased 2 percentage points

    Commenting on the results, CEO Anil Wadhwani said: "In the first three months of 2026, we once again demonstrated our continued delivery of double digit new business profit growth. Performance was broad based across segments, with higher APE sales and improved new business margins, reflecting our disciplined execution and continued focus on driving high-quality growth.

    “The quarter reinforced the strength of our multi-channel, multi-market business model, with resilient performance despite ongoing market volatility and geopolitical uncertainty. Similar to the outcome in full year 2025, bancassurance delivered strong year on year growth in both volumes and margins, with continued traction across key markets. We continue to progress our agency transformation programme with a focus on quality recruitment and actions to improve agent productivity, including the rollout of enhanced digital tools. The agency channel continued to grow new business profit in the first quarter.

    “Through disciplined value creation, continued strengthening of our distribution and a focus on enhancing customer experience we are well positioned to capture structural growth opportunities across Asia and Africa. We remain confident in delivering double digit growth across our key financial metrics in 2026 and achieving our 2027 financial objectives.”

    Growth in our “Growth markets and other” segment was led by our business in Thailand, which saw continuing strong demand for savings products, and our associate in India, ICICI Prudential Life. While overall performance in Taiwan moderated after the strong growth delivered in recent periods, we are pleased with progress in the broker channel.

    Consistent with our disciplined capital return framework, we launched a $1.2 billion buyback in January to be executed during the course of 2026, comprising $500 million of recurring capital returns and $700 million of net proceeds from the initial public offering of ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company. During the first quarter of 2026 we repurchased approximately 20 million shares for a total consideration of $312 million.