Guidelines for insurance sector IPOs soon: IRDA

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) on Friday said it would come out with guidelines on initial public offers for the insurance sector within a fortnight to enable insurers to tap the capital market for funds.

The IPO guidelines will be issued in the next 15 days, agency reports quoted Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) member R Kannan as saying.

IRDA, which is working along with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), is likely to come out with a draft for public comments before issuing the final guidelines.

Reliance Life and several other private sector insurers have evinced interest in seeking funds through capital market to augment their resource base.

The government had proposed to relax norms to allow listing of companies after five years of operation as against the current 10-year norm.

However, according to Kannan, no decision has been taken on reducing the number of years before allowing insurance companies to go public.