New India Assurance IPO gets Sebi go-ahead; issue size likely to be $1bn

New Delhi: State-owned New India Assurance Company Ltd has received Sebi approval to float initial public offer (IPO), as per the latest update by the capital markets regulator. The country’s largest non-life insurer had filed draft prospectus with Sebi in August and received ‘observations’ from it on 15 September that are necessary for an IPO. [caption id=“attachment_4056979” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters.[/caption] According to the draft papers, the government will be selling 9.6 crore shares, whereas the company itself will be selling 2.4 crore shares through the IPO. Thus a total of 12 crore shares of the non-life insurer would be sold through the share sale offer, constituting around 14.56 percent of the company’s post issue share capital. The size of the forthcoming IPO of New India is likely to be over USD 1 billion, as per merchant banking sources. Axis Capital, Yes Bank, Nomura, IDFC Bank and Kotak are managing the company’s IPO. The public sector insurer is expected to hit the market in the current financial year to help the government meet its ambitious disinvestment target of Rs 72,500 crore. Besides, the initial share-sale offers of General Insurance Corporation of India and HDFC Standard Life Insurance are currently awaiting Sebi’s approval to launch their respective pubic offers. The IPO of ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company is currently open for public subscription, while that of SBI Life Insurance Company will begin on Wednesday. In 2016, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance became the country’s first listed insurer after its Rs 6,000 crore public issue.