Insurers in no hurry for IPO LIFE Insurers are in no hurry to come out with an IPO to raise money from the capital market even as the Irda is finalising IPO norms for the insurers.
Private life insurers such as Reliance Life, ICICI Prudential, HDFC Life and SBI Life, in the past, have expressed interest in tapping the capital markets.

Reliance Life Insurance has put off its plans for IPO after its recent stake sale to Japan's Nippon Life for Rs 3,062 crore. "Reliance Life wanted to raise capital through stake sale to a foreign partner or through capital market. After 26 per cent stake divestment to Japan's Nippon Life, the company will not go for IPO," said a senior Reliance Life official.

Life Insurance is capitalintensive business and life insurers need funds to carry out their business. As per the current norms companies, which have completed 10 years of operation and posted profit for three years can raise money from market.

Companies such as HDFC Life, ICICI Prudential and SBI Life will complete 10 years of operation soon, while Reliance Life operations in 2005.

A senior SBI official indicated that the company is not in a hurry to come out with an IPO even after Irda released IPO guidelines."We do not face any capital shortage, we have strong support from our parent companies SBI and BNP Paribas. We will look at the IPO depending on the market conditions," he said.

Sandeep Bakshi, managing director and chief executive of ICICI Prudential Life, recently said the company is not interested to raise any capital from the market now. He has also mentioned that the company is well capitalised and that it doesn't need shareholders' fund now.

Source :- mydigitalfc