The Anil Ambani Group’s life insurance venture, Reliance Life, today said it was looking for a strategic investor. It also proposed to come out with an initial public offer (IPO) once the guidelines were put in place by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) and the market watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
The private sector insurance company is talking to a number of foreign players to sell a 10 to 15 per cent stake, Reliance Life President and Executive Director Malay Ghosh said.
“Ideally, it would be 10-15 per cent strategic divestment and remaining 10 per cent through IPO. We have prepared ourselves for the red herring prospectus to be submitted to Sebi. Once the IPO guidelines are in place, we will look into the guidelines and do the final brushes,” Ghosh said.
He further said Irda Chairman J Harinarayan had indicated the IPO norms would be ready in a couple of weeks.
Irda said that it had finalised the IPO guidelines for insurance companies and referred the se to Sebi for final approval, which is expected soon.
Reliance Life could be the first life insurance company in the country to come out with an IPO once the guidelines, on which Sebi and Irda are jointly working, are framed for public offer and listing of insurance firms.
On selling a stake to a foreign partner, Ghosh said, “We are talking to companies which are abroad and have interest in India. There has been significant discussion with a number of players.”
Earlier, there were reports that Reliance Life was in talks with Swiss Re for sale of a 10-15 per cent stake for an estimated Rs 1,500 crore. On the company's growth plans, Ghosh said Reliance Life mopped up new business premiums worth Rs 603 crore in the first quarter of the current financial year.
“First quarter, we have done Rs 603 crore of premium and this is a 20 per cent growth over what we did last year. We also have a growth of 21 per cent on the number of policies. The most important part is that 50 per cent of it is from traditional products,” he added.
Ghosh further said the company plans to mop up Rs 5,000 crore worth of new business premiums in the current financial year, compared to Rs 3,900 crore last year.
