New India Assurance’s Rs10,000-cr IPO to hit market next month
23 Oct 2017
New India Assurance (NIA), the largest general insurance company in the country, is coming out with a Rs10,000-crore initial public offer (IPO) as insurance companies continue to scour the primary market for funds to grow.
The Rs10,000 crore IPO of New India Assurance will be completed in the first week of November, reports quoting government officials said. The figure is tentative and the exact amount and pricing for the IPO will be announced this week, they added.
The company, which recently completed overseas road shows for the issue, has seen a robust response frominvestors. Earlier, the company had appointed five merchant bankers - Kotak, Axis Bank, Nomura, IDFC and Yes Bank for the IPO.
The NIA offer follows the Rs11,370 crore IPO of General Insurance Corporation of India Ltd (GIC Re), which was oversubscribed by over 1.35 times. The stock will be listed on 25 October.
Earlier private insurers ICICI Lombard and SBI Life had come out with public share sales in close intervals over the past one and a half month.
With operations in 28 countries, New India Assurance continues to be the leader in India's general insurance market with a share currently hovering around 16 per cent.
With assets of over Rs69,000 crore and solvency ratio of 2.27, NIA reported compounded annual growth rate of over 15 per cent for the last five years. It's net worth, including fair value of investments, increased to over Rs38,100 crore as of June-end.
NIA's market value of investments stood at Rs63,100 crore at the end of June quarter of the current fiscal.
The company, which is targeting Rs26,000 crore premium in the current fiscal, is the largest general insurer in terms of premium, profits, market share and distribution network.
With India's top business houses as its customers, New India is the country's only direct insurer with an international 'A' rating and has operations through a desk at Lloyd's, the world's largest specialist insurer.
Some of the other insurers' IPOs, which are likely to hit the street in near future include HDFC Life, Reliance General and National Insurance Company.