ICICI Prudential Life, HDFC Standard Life to raise over $1 bn

Mumbai, May 6

Two of India’s leading private-sector insurers are looking to raise over $1 billion this financial year in the sector’s first initial public offerings (IPOs), as insurance companies rush to take advantage of a change in ownership rules.

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and HDFC Standard Life Insurance will likely be followed by SBI Life Insurance in reacting to a relaxation in foreign investment regulation last year that made share sales more feasible, in a country where most life insurers are part-foreign owned.

“The business potential for insurance companies is large,” said New Delhi-based RK Gupta, managing director at Taurus Asset Management.

“But too many players are in the market, competition is going up,” he said. ICICI and HDFC are well-established and big enough to beat back rivals, he said.

ICICI Pru Life, a JV between ICICI Bank and Britain’s Prudential PLC, is set to hire Bank of America Merrill Lynch and ICICI Securities for an IPO up to $700 million. HDFC Standard Life will hire Citigroup, JPMorgan, Kotak Investment Banking and Morgan Stanley to handle its IPO of up to $500 million. Reuters