Star Health Insurance and Allied Insurance Company Limited, India's largest standalone health insurer, delivered exceptional financial performance in Q3FY26, reporting a remarkable 414% year-on-year growth in Profit After Tax to ₹449 crores under Ind AS accounting standards. The company demonstrated strong business momentum with significant improvements across key operational metrics, reinforcing its market leadership position.

Strong Premium Growth and Market Leadership

The company's business performance remained robust during Q3FY26, with Gross Written Premium on net basis growing 23% year-on-year to ₹5,047 crores. Retail GWP showed even stronger growth of 27% YoY to ₹4,838 crores, driven by an impressive 60% YoY growth in fresh retail premiums. For the nine-month period FY26, GWP reached ₹13,856 crores, marking a 16% YoY increase, while retail GWP grew 20% YoY to ₹13,170 crores. The company maintained its dominant market position with a 31.3% market share in India's retail health segment for 9M FY26.

Exceptional Financial Performance

The company achieved underwriting profit of ₹46 crores in Q3FY26, a significant turnaround from the underwriting loss of ₹79 crores in Q3FY25. For the nine-month period, underwriting profit reached ₹20 crores compared to a loss of ₹227 crores in the previous year.

Operational Efficiency Improvements

Star Health demonstrated substantial improvements in key operational ratios during Q3FY26. The combined ratio improved by 317 basis points to 98.9% compared to 102.1% in Q3FY25, driven by both loss ratio and expense ratio improvements.

Digital Transformation and Customer Experience

The company continued to strengthen its digital capabilities across the value chain. Digital channels contributed 20% of fresh retail sales during the fiscal year, while 76% of overall premiums across channels were collected through digital routes. The distribution app "Atom" facilitated 85% of fresh policy acquisitions digitally in Q3, indicating higher digital adoption rates.

Star Health's AI-enabled claims engine scaled up significantly, enabling migration of 57% of claims traffic, which enhanced productivity levels and improved customer feedback. The customer app exceeded 13 million downloads by December 2025 with over 1.5 million monthly active users. Self-service adoption showed strong growth with over 60,000 claims submitted and over 3 lakh policies renewed through the application.

Claims Excellence and Customer Satisfaction

During 9M FY26, Star Health settled 1.36 million claims amounting to over ₹8,900 crores, demonstrating its commitment to customer service. The company maintained robust renewal trends with 99.2% persistency during the period. Customer satisfaction metrics improved significantly, with company-level Net Promoter Score increasing from 55 in December 2024 to 64 in December 2025, while claims NPS improved from 63 to 64 during the same period.

Management Commentary

Anand Roy, CEO & Managing Director, emphasized the company's focus on maintaining leadership in retail health while building a durable, value-accretive franchise. He highlighted that actions towards portfolio recalibration, disciplined underwriting, prudent expense management, and technology-led delivery are translating into a stronger operating profile. The company reported a healthy investment yield of 9.6%, underlining its proactive stance towards value creation. Roy also noted the company's alignment with IFRS reporting standards to enhance transparency and comparability ahead of the industry's transition to this regime in 2027.

Ace investor Rekha Jhunjhunwala has significantly increased her promoter stake in star health insurance during the December quarter, demonstrating continued confidence in the health insurance company despite recent stock underperformance.

Substantial Stake Enhancement

Jhunjhunwala's shareholding in Star Health and Allied Insurance Company rose dramatically to 15.57% in the December quarter, up from 3.04% in the September-ended quarter. This represents a substantial increase of 1,253 basis points, according to BSE shareholding data where she is classified as part of the promoter group.

Concurrent Promoter Changes

Simultaneously, the company witnessed a stake reduction of 1,255 basis points to 1.55% in the October to December quarter from 14.10% in Q2FY26. The late Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is also listed as a promoter in the company, highlighting the continued involvement of the Jhunjhunwala family in the health insurance sector.

Stock Performance Challenges

Jhunjhunwala's additional stake acquisition comes amid continuous underperformance in Star Health shares. The stock has declined nearly 6% over the past 12 months, reflecting broader sectoral challenges. This performance aligns with the healthcare sector's struggles, as the Nifty Pharma index has fallen 3% during the same period, contrasting with the Nifty's 8% growth.

Shares of Star Health are currently trading below their 50-day and 200-day simple moving averages of ₹470.00 and ₹445.00, respectively, according to market data.

Company Financial Performance

Star Health reported mixed financial results in the September-ended quarter. The company's standalone net profit declined significantly by 51% to ₹55.00 crore compared to ₹111.00 crore in the year-ago period. However, total revenue showed positive growth, increasing 8% to ₹4,381.00 crore from ₹4,061.00 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year.

Business Operations and Portfolio Context

Star Health is a Chennai-headquartered company providing comprehensive health insurance services. The company operates an extensive network of 14,000 hospitals and maintains over 850 branch offices across the country.

As per the latest corporate shareholdings data, Rekha Jhunjhunwala publicly holds 26 stocks with a combined net worth exceeding ₹44,238.00 crore. Her diversified portfolio includes notable holdings in:

• Aptech
• Sundrop Brands
• Valor Estate
• Escorts Kubota
• Federal Bank
• Fortis Healthcare

The significant stake increase in Star Health demonstrates Jhunjhunwala's continued confidence in the health insurance sector's long-term prospects, despite current market challenges and the company's recent financial performance pressures.