In the country’s biggest listing in seven years, the Indian government raised about 98 billion rupees, US$1.5 billion, in GIC Re’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) which closed today, Reuters reported.
State-run reinsurer General Insurance Corp of India (GIC Re) had aimed to raise up to $1.7 billion in its IPO that ran from October 11-13th, 2017.
The IPO comes as part of the government’s plan to raise 725 billion rupees by selling off some of its stakes in state-run companies in the year to March.
GIC Re previously announced ambitious plans to diversify its revenue base into the life segment and expand business lines throughout the global market, and sold its shares to fund its diversification plans.
The government was selling 107.5 million IPO shares, while the company was selling 17.2 million new shares.
The 124.7 million shares make up 14.2% of the post-offer paid up share capital, said Reuters, the IPO was managed by Citi, Axis Capital, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Kotak.
India’s largest reinsurer aims to move into the international life reinsurance segment through building on overseas relationships in SAARC, South East Asia, Latin America, Africa and China as well as into the Indian life insurance market.
Reuters said Crisil Research estimates reinsurance premiums in India will grow at an average annual rate of 11-14 percent over five years to reach 700 billion rupees by March 2022.
GIC Re is expected to enter the stock markets on October 25th, 2017.
