New York Life in talks to sell stake worth Rs3,500 crore in Indian JV: report

New York Life Insurance Co is in talks to sell its near-26 per cent stake in a joint-venture with one of India's leading insurance companies Max India, the Economic Times yesterday reported, citing an unnamed source.

US-based New York Life, one of the largest life insurers in the world, with about $287 billion in assets under management, is in talks with a few European and Japanese companies.

New York Life's stake in the JV is estimated to be worth around Rs3,500 crore ($709 million) and it would share about one-third or Rs1,000-1,100 crore of the sale proceeds with Analjit Singh, the promoter of Delhi-based insurer Max India, said the paper.

"Our JV is a highly successful operation that provides important insurance products to the people of India. We do not comment on rumours," a New York Life spokesman was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Singh, one of the three sons of Ranbaxy Laboratories founder Bhai Mohan Singh, and uncle of Malvinder and Surinder Singh of Fortis Healthcare, created the Max group in the 1990s after a division of family assets. He shifted focus from pharma to the telecom business in the mid-'90s by entering into a joint venture with Motorola for radio paging and later with Hutchison Whampoa for mobile services across the country.

He sold his stake to his joint venture partners for around $150 million in 2000 and invested in healthcare, life insurance and health insurance under Max India.