MFSLNSEq2fy26November 18, 2025

Max Financial Services Limited

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10analyst exchanges

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Key numbers — 40 extracted

18%

ble growth: Continuing our strong performance, our individual adjusted first year premium grew by 18% in H1 FY26, which, in fact, is more than twice that of the private sector growth at 8%, while the

m grew by 18% in H1 FY26, which, in fact, is more than twice that of the private sector growth at 8%, while the overall industry expanded by just 2%. Consequently, our private market share improve

e than twice that of the private sector growth at 8%, while the overall industry expanded by just 2%. Consequently, our private market share improved by 83 basis points, reaching 10.1%. Even on a 2-

83 basis point

le the overall industry expanded by just 2%. Consequently, our private market share improved by 83 basis points, reaching 10.1%. Even on a 2- year CAGR, we delivered 24% growth, well ahead of the private secto

10.1%

expanded by just 2%. Consequently, our private market share improved by 83 basis points, reaching 10.1%. Even on a 2- year CAGR, we delivered 24% growth, well ahead of the private sector, 16%, and in fa

24%

ate market share improved by 83 basis points, reaching 10.1%. Even on a 2- year CAGR, we delivered 24% growth, well ahead of the private sector, 16%, and in fact, more than double the industry's growt

16%

reaching 10.1%. Even on a 2- year CAGR, we delivered 24% growth, well ahead of the private sector, 16%, and in fact, more than double the industry's growth rate of 11%, a clear reflection of the stren

11%

ell ahead of the private sector, 16%, and in fact, more than double the industry's growth rate of 11%, a clear reflection of the strength and resilience of our franchise. In quarter two FY26, indiv

14%

strength and resilience of our franchise. In quarter two FY26, individual adjusted FYP grew by 14%, again, outperforming both the private sector, which stood at 8%, and the overall industry at 1%.

14%, again, outperforming both the private sector, which stood at 8%, and the overall industry at 1%. On an APE basis, we recorded 15% growth driven from both our proprietary and the bancassurance c

15%

e private sector, which stood at 8%, and the overall industry at 1%. On an APE basis, we recorded 15% growth driven from both our proprietary and the bancassurance channel. Our proprietary channels c

39%

owth for Axis Max Life Insurance. Last 3-year CAGR from these channels stand at a very impressive 39%. In fact, our online business delivered a remarkable 68% CAGR and is supported by the sustained g

Guidance — 20 items

Sumit Madan

opening

“My focus will be on amplifying our core priorities, namely strengthening our customer-first approach, accelerating digital and data-led growth, deepening our partnerships and driving sustainable long-term value for all the stakeholders.”

Sumit Madan

opening

“As a result, we are maintaining our earlier sales and margin guidance.”

Sumit Madan

opening

“Let me now take you through the key developments across our strategic focus areas for the first half of FY26.”

Sustainable and predictable growth

opening

“Continuing our strong performance, our individual adjusted first year premium grew by 18% in H1 FY26, which, in fact, is more than twice that of the private sector growth at 8%, while the overall industry expanded by just 2%.”

Sustainable and predictable growth

opening

“Even on a 2- year CAGR, we delivered 24% growth, well ahead of the private sector, 16%, and in fact, more than double the industry's growth rate of 11%, a clear reflection of the strength and resilience of our franchise.”

Sustainable and predictable growth

opening

“In quarter two FY26, individual adjusted FYP grew by 14%, again, outperforming both the private sector, which stood at 8%, and the overall industry at 1%.”

Sustainable and predictable growth

opening

“Last 3-year CAGR from these channels stand at a very impressive 39%.”

Sustainable and predictable growth

opening

“In fact, our online business delivered a remarkable 68% CAGR and is supported by the sustained growth, sustained strength of our offline distribution network.”

Sustainable and predictable growth

opening

“On this strong foundation, our offline proprietary channels recorded 26% APE growth in Q2 FY26, while the online business grew 14%, resulting in an overall 22% growth from the proprietary channels during this quarter.”

Sustainable and predictable growth

opening

“To further enhance our reach and diversify our distribution footprint, we added 31 new partners across the retail and group segments during the first half of FY26, further strengthening our multichannel presence and setting a solid foundation for future growth.”

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Risks & concerns — 3 flagged

In fact, even in risk and underwriting, we are leveraging automation to enhance both precision and scale.

— Product innovation to drive margins

A comprehensive suite of risk models are fully integrated into our onboarding journey, ensuring meticulous due diligence based on the risk category.

— Product innovation to drive margins

First is, as you highlighted the impact of GST, if you do nothing, would be a 300, 350 basis points annual Y-o-Y impact that we are talking about.

— Shreya Shivani

Q&A — 10 exchanges

Yes, thank you for the opportunity. Congratulations on a great set of numbers. I have three questions. First is, as you highlighted the impact of GST, if you do nothing, would be a 300, 350 basis points annual Y-o-Y impact that we are talking about. So I just wanted to understand that when it comes to cost, what kind of negotiations are we done with our distributors or what kind of time lines do we have when it take us 1 quarter, 2 quarter, etcetera? That is my first question. My second question is again on the GST cut, if you can help us understand in your product suite, which product gets im

Amrit Singh

Hi, Shreya. Thank you for those questions. I will take the first two and I will request Sumit to speak about the third one. Firstly, you are right. If you do nothing, that is the impact, 300 to 350 basis points. But there are series of things that we are trying to do at our end, which beyond distribution negotiation is also cost controls, product tweaks, product mix, renegotiations across our vendor partner, looking at our outsourcing and sourcing decisions as well. With respect to specific negotiations with the distributor, we will not like to kind of comment because these are individual conv

Yes. Hi, good morning. Thanks for the opportunity. A few questions. The first one is more on accounting clarification. So if I see a material divergence this quarter between the accounting profit or PBT of Max Financial, Max Life, is it just that IndAS and Indian GAAP divergence? Or is there something more? And if that divergence hits broadly, you can sort of explain what are the key factor here in the divergence. And related to accounting, another question. If I see your EV walk, where you have explained this GST impact around INR260-odd crore, that I see you take it out of NAV. I mean, a sim

Amrit Singh

So I will take the first two and I guess I will request Sumit to come in for the third one. So Avinash ji, your observation is actually correct with respect to the accounting profit in MFSL, which is an Ind AS mechanics. The difference between Axis Max Life IGAAP profit, and IndAS profit is that in addition to the profit dip, which has happened in Axis Max Life due to GST impact, where from INR231 crore of profit after tax that we had got last year. We are right now reporting INR149 crore. That is an INR82 crore drop. The residual drop is just because of the Ind AS accounting standard, which a

Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity and congrats on a good set of numbers. So first question, sir, just wanted to understand the VNB development for the quarter. I think year-on-year, it is 190 bps. Now you said 60 bps coming due to the GST impact. So adjusting for that, that 250-odd bps, if you can break it down between how much has come from the product mix, how much may be product level improvements and if there has been any operating leverage that has played out during this quarter. If you could give that color, it would be very helpful? Second is in terms of growth. As you had mentione

Amrit Singh

Thanks, Swarnabh. I think I will take most of these questions. Firstly, on the VNB, I think your question is where is the improvement in margins coming through. A large part of this answer is product mix led, Swarnabh, some bit of support also coming in certain categories like protection and annuity, but large part of this is coming out of product mix. On the growth guidance, look, I mean, on an APE basis, we are growing 15%. We had given for the full year good guidance between 15%, 17%. So I think we are holding on to that number. Your observation is right that on a very tough base, and that

Hi, thank you for taking my question. Most of my questions are answered. Just one, first question on the protection side. So you are delivering quite strong growth on the total retail and health protection and you share that 34% is the pure protection. I just wanted to know what was the pure protection growth this quarter last year. And similarly, for the rider attachment rate, that is around 37% right now. What was that, let us say, for the full year FY25 and this quarter last year?

Sumit Madan

Yes. Thank you, Kushagra. Very relevant one, Kushagra. In fact, we have been seeing protection growth across channels for the last year or so. To answer specifically, we have seen a 34% growth as far as pure protection is concerned. And this growth has come across Axis Bank. This growth has come across banca channel. This growth has come across all our proprietary verticals as well. So we see a very strong momentum now. In fact, post GST, the momentum has only improved as far as protection is concerned. And we have been looking at the numbers post 22nd September week by week. Across industry a

Yes. Hi, team congrats on a great set of numbers. First question is on the GST hit. I think, Amrit, you mentioned 200 to 250 or 300 to 350?

Amrit Singh

300 to 350 on a run rate basis. On run rate basis if nothing is done. So in that light, you had earlier guided for a VNB margin expansion of about 100 basis points for FY26. Now how would you kind of guide for the margins for FY26? Would you change that 100 bps expansion or you would want to increase or cut it? How should we look at it for the full year? Yes. Prayesh, I did speak in the opening remarks. I think we are holding on to the guidances. So we had indicated that we will improve margin profiles, and it will be between 24%, 25%. We are holding on to that guidance. Okay. Got it. And seco

Hi, congratulations on a great set of numbers and very strong performance. Two questions. See, Axis channel at 6%, 7% sort of a growth number is still a little bit probably lower in my expectation. And I was wondering like what is happening over there in the sense that I know that, okay, you have done some work on the product mix side, etcetera, but still the premium offtake, I would believe would have should have been higher. We also know some also comment on the counter share and strategy and what should be the number that one should look at in terms of Axis growing year-over-year in the med

Sumit Madan

Sure. I think the first one first, Madhukar, as far as Axis Bank is concerned. See, I think we need to understand there are a lot of things that we are focusing on as far as Axis is concerned. Like I said earlier, emerging and you really have to look at the picture going function by function. So for example, emerging channel is an area, like I mentioned earlier, which is growing steadily for us. Similarly, for example, we have looked at cards database. We have looked at assets database in terms of further penetrate from an insurance perspective. While the growth is at 7% for H1, we have also t

Yes. Thanks for the opportunity. Amrit, the 60 basis point in the current half margin impact, how do you break it, whether it is only related to new business or the renewal from 1st April to 21st September is also there in 60? If that is the case, can you break it down, that 60 into renewal part and the new part from September 22 onwards?

Amrit Singh

Hi, Sanketh. So 60 bps, as I said, is only for the sale that has been post the GST period, which is 22nd September onwards, which I mentioned in the opening remark is 75% of the sale of the September month. The rest of the impact is something that has got carried in the other number that you saw, the INR268 crore that we showed on the EV walk. Understood. Sorry, maybe I missed that point. And see, on the INR268 crore also, Amrit, I mean, obviously as a percentage of opening EV, if I do that number, it comes closer to 110 basis points, while most of the other names reported somewhere between 40

Good morning to the team and best wishes to Mr. Sumit on joining and taking on the reins of the company. I just want to understand a personal outlook from your side. I want to understand the bigger picture. What is the long-term plan for Max Financial beyond quarterly number or distribution expansion? Is there a deeper tactic that you are building that gives the company a lasting edge over the time? For example, are you thinking about new ways of working or introduction of any digital platforms or customer engagement models, something that makes the company stronger and hard for your competito

Sumit Madan

Sorry Sucrit are you there? He said he will ask the second question later. Okay. Sorry. You want me to answer the first one first. I think personal outlook, Sucrit, I have said it time and again in various forums. I come from banking. And when I look at insurance as a market, I just look at a huge landscape, whichever number you want to believe 3.8, 4, 4.2 as far as penetration is concerned, there is just so much opportunity as far as India is concerned. And at least in the last 2 years with my experience at Axis Max Life, we have just further up the momentum as far as the numbers, penetration

Hi, Nischint here. Just one question, and this is actually on product mix. If I kind of try to break this between proprietary and partnerships, I mean, one common thing that we see is that on a year-on-year basis, ULIP has gone down. But within the proprietary channel, what we can see is that there has been some meaningful improvement in protection and health and par book. But when I look at partnerships, there is bigger increase in the non-par savings book. So is it something by design? And I think if I look at structurally as well, the share of protection and health and proprietary is much h

Amrit Singh

Nischint, your observation is correct actually. And it is some bit of it is by design. Protection selling, by nature, is a bit of a long selling because it kind of entails medicals, collecting financial documents, and the time that it takes to close the protection sale is always longer. And we have seen the ability to navigate and leverage this in proprietary channels to be higher. Then partnership channels where savings and instant product, which actually can be issued quickly find more popularity. So at least in the near future, I think our focus of driving protection, health in the propriet

Thank you, everyone, for being part of Max Financial's earning call. We look forward to more such interactions in the future. Have a good day. Goodbye.

Management

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Speaking time

Amrit Singh

Moderator

Sumit Madan

Sanketh Godha

Prayesh Jain

Nischint Chawathe

Shreya Shivani

Swarnabh Mukherjee

Kushagra Goel

Madhukar Ladha

Opening remarks

Nishant Kumar

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining Max Financial's earnings call for the quarter ended September 30, 2025. We are pleased to present our quarter 2 financial year 26 results, which are now available on our website as well as on the stock exchanges. Joining me today are Mr. Sumit Madan, Managing Director and CEO and Mr. Amrit Singh, Chief Financial Officer of Axis Max Life Insurance. With that, I would like to invite Sumit to share the key developments and performance highlights from the second quarter of financial year 26. Over to you, Sumit.

Sumit Madan

Thank you, Nishant, and good morning, everyone. At the onset, I really want to thank all of you for taking the time out for this call. In my new capacity as the MD and CEO, I am genuinely honored to take on this role and very excited about the opportunities ahead. Axis Max Life, as you all know, has always been built on strong fundamentals and a clear sense of purpose, and that gives me utmost confidence as we look to the future. My focus will be on amplifying our core priorities, namely strengthening our customer-first approach, accelerating digital and data-led growth, deepening our partnerships and driving sustainable long-term value for all the stakeholders. We have, in fact, made some very strong progress on these fronts, and my goal is to build on that momentum, including execution with discipline while nurturing the culture and purpose that always defines us. Before I get into the progress achieved on strategic areas, I would like to mention that on the regulatory front, the rec

Sustainable and predictable growth

Continuing our strong performance, our individual adjusted first year premium grew by 18% in H1 FY26, which, in fact, is more than twice that of the private sector growth at 8%, while the overall industry expanded by just 2%. Consequently, our private market share improved by 83 basis points, reaching 10.1%. Even on a 2- year CAGR, we delivered 24% growth, well ahead of the private sector, 16%, and in fact, more than double the industry's growth rate of 11%, a clear reflection of the strength and resilience of our franchise. In quarter two FY26, individual adjusted FYP grew by 14%, again, outperforming both the private sector, which stood at 8%, and the overall industry at 1%. On an APE basis, we recorded 15% growth driven from both our proprietary and the bancassurance channel. Our proprietary channels continue to be a cornerstone of growth for Axis Max Life Insurance. Last 3-year CAGR from these channels stand at a very impressive 39%. In fact, our online business delivered a remarka

Product innovation to drive margins

At Axis Max Life, we remain deeply focused on driving product innovation to deliver sustainable value for all our customers, employees, partners, investors and the broader community. Our non- participating savings products continue to perform strongly following the Q1 launch of Smart VIBE, helping us maintain a well-balanced product mix. Protection remains a preferred segment for us. Our award-winning retail protection products have led us to attain the highest market share during H1 FY26 with a 34% growth rate in pure protection category. Consequently, the total retail protection and health segment contributed to 13% of overall sales with 36% growth, supported by 37% rider attachment rate. In addition, group credit protection business is also growing steadily with a 24% growth in Q2, well ahead of the industry average. Our annuity business grew by 85% in H1 FY26 and 122% in quarter 2 FY26, driven by overall, a very strong execution on the retail and the corporate annuity pool. We rece

Amrit Singh

Thank you, Sumit, and good morning, everyone. We had made our presentations live last evening. I will just kind of speak about few financial highlights. • At MFSL level, the revenue, excluding investment now stands at INR15,090 crore, a growth of 18% in the first half. MFSL's consolidated profit after tax is at INR92 crore. It is lower than last year, primarily due to the fair value change account that Ind AS accounting has been taken. And also, the GST expense underlying Axis Max Life franchise has kind of taken on its profit. • Axis Max Life gross written premium and renewal premium both have grown healthy at 18%, touching INR15,490 crore and INR9,503 crore, respectively. • Individual new business sum assured continues to grow at a healthy pace of 25% and has touched INR2.16 lakh crore and we are the number three player with respect to total individuals sum assured in the market. • Embedded value ending 30th September 2025 is now INR26,895 crore, a year-on-year growth of 15%. The emb

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