MUMBAI (Reuters) - Canada's Sun Life Financial Inc will increase its stake in its Indian life insurance joint venture, Birla Sun Life Insurance, to 49 percent by spending 16.64 billion rupees ($250 million), the companies said on Wednesday.
Sun Life Financial, which currently owns 26 percent of Birla Sun Life, is buying an additional 23 percent in the JV from partner India's Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd. Aditya Birla Nuvo will have 51 percent of the venture after the deal, which the companies said is expected to close by March 2016.
The deal is the latest in the Indian insurance sector this year after the government raised the foreign investment cap in the $50 billion sector to 49 percent from 26 percent earlier.
Japan's Nippon Life and France's AXA recently announced deals to raise their stakes to 49 percent in their respective Indian insurance joint ventures.
($1 = 66.5859 rupees)
(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
