Pantaloon enters insurance via JV

Pantaloon Retail India, a textiles and retailing company, is foraying into insurance business in joint venture with Italy's Generali Group. Generali is one of the largest insurance groups in the world.

Pantaloon and Generali will set up a joint venture, which will set up separate entities for life insurance and general insurance businesses.

Generali will have a 26 per cent stake in the joint venture and the balance will be held by Pantaloon and its associates.

Pantaloon Retail's associate company Pantaloon Industries will set up two special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to invest in the insurance businesses. Pantaloon Industries will invest Rs 25 crore in the two SPVs.

Generali operates across 40 countries through 107 companies. It ranks 22 in the list of Fortune 500 companies and is the largest corporation in Italy with an asset base of over euro 300 billion.

Generali has in other parts of the world successfully tied-up with retail groups for distribution of insurance and other financial products.

Apart from insurance, Generali has significant presence in real estate and asset management businesses in Europe.

Pantaloon, in a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange, said as part of its vision to expand its portfolio of retail products, Pantaloon has tied-up with Generali for its foray into insurance business.

The proposed joint venture would look to distribute insurance products utilizing the vast distribution network of the company along with other conventional formats of insurance distribution presently prevailing in India.