mumbai leading private life insurer hdfc standard life reported a robust 63 per cent growth in firstyear premium collection at rs 6927 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscalduring the june quarter last fiscal the company had a new business income of rs 4249 crore only as this year it could lower operating expenses and commission ratios besides ensuring a steady rise in the conservation ratio its managing director and chief executive officer amitabh chaudhry said in a statementthe period under review also saw the company becoming the second largest private life insurer in the country with a 12 per cent market share up from 74 per cent in the same period last fiscalin spite of the challenges in the market we have registered a fantastic first quarter weve been successful in significantly lowering our expense ratio to 231 per cent in the june quarter from 304 per cent in q1 fy10with a skew in premium income towards the latter half of the year the operating expense ratio is expected to reduce further during the course of the year our total commission ratio also fell to 68 per cent from 82 per cent with a corresponding fall in new business commissions to 122 per cent from 159 per cent our conservation ratio also improved substantially chaudhry saidchaudhry further said the companys overall business touched rs 14789 crore in the reporting quarter a growth of 478 per cent from rs 10005 crore in q1 fy10 while renewal premium income grew 383 per cent to rs 7589 crore during the reporting period from rs 5488 crore in q1 last fiscalhe said the company ended the june quarter with an indian gaap loss of rs 751 crore primarily due to new business strains caused by a strong growth in new business premiumconservation ratio of individual business improved substantially to 835 per cent in the reporting period from 619 per cent in the same period last fiscal similarly assets under management as of endjune soared 116 per cent growth to rs 22298 crore from rs 10307 crore in the june 2009 quarterwe continue to focus on the longterm story we would invest in nurturing new business channels improving customer service and making our distribution channels more productive chaudhry said