India: Some insurers go public, others need more time
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Dec 2017
India Property & Casualty
With two government-owned insurance institutions currently listed on Indian stock exchanges, attention is now turned to the initial public offerings (IPOs) plans of three other state-owned non-life insurers.
India’s biggest non-life insurer, New India Assurance, went public last month, soon after the country’s largest reinsurer GIC Re, was listed in October.
National Insurance, which will be the second state-run general insurer to list, has applied for an IPO which is expected to take place before 31 March 2018.
The current drive to list state-owned insurers follows Finance Minister’s Budget Speech in 2016 in which he said that the government proposed to undertake the “public listing of public sector general insurance companies”.
The IPOs of the remaining two government-owned non-life insurers, United India Insurance and Oriental Insurance, are likely to be deferred to the end of 2018. These insurers are working to improve their solvency ratio, which are currently below the minimum required level of 150%.
Several private-sector insurers have also been listed in the 13 months since November 2016. A