Would wait till October-end before saying performance is sustainable, says HDFC Life’s Vibha Padalkar

HDFC Life will certainly do better than the industry, said Vibha Padalkar, MD & CEO at the life insurance firm on Tuesday. The company registered strong growth in business in August with total annual premium equivalent growing 17 percent versus 12 percent in July.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, HDFC Life’s Padalkar spoke at length about the strong showing and whether the company will now up its guidance for the year from flat to growth on a year-on-year basis. She said that each month is getting better and we should wipe out decline by October.

“We have already done that in terms of number of policies that we have sold versus the number of policies sold last year,” Padalkar said, while adding, “The signature of COVID, especially what we are seeing in metros, is very much there and I would like to wait until end of October before I start saying that do we have a good visibility that this is sustainable. It is only the COVID angle and nothing else, but all things being equal yes, we should register a positive growth on a full year basis.”