ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd., a joint venture between Indian private sector lender ICICI Bank and British insurance firm Prudential Plc, received capital markets regulator Sebi's approval for its multi-crore initial public offering (IPO) on Wednesday.
The issue size is likely to be around Rs. 5,000 crore.
The company had filed for the IPO in July this year. ICICI Bank holds about 68 percent in the venture and had applied for the sale of about 181 million shares. Prudential Plc's stake is about 26 percent, while other shareholders of the venture include Temasek Holdings Private Ltd., the Singapore government-owned investment firm. PremjiInvest, the private investment arm of Wipro chairman Azim Premji, has about 4 percent stake in ICICI Prudential Life.
The public issue will be the first by an insurance firm in India where the life insurance segment has 24 players, including the state-run Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), which enjoys about 70 percent market share.
The ICICI Bank stock was trading at Rs. 279.95 at around 1.49 p.m. on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), up 2.75 percent from its previous close.
HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Ltd. (HDFC Life) is another private life insurance firm that has firmed up listing plans. Mortgage lender HDFC holds about 61.6 percent stake in the venture, while Standard Life has a 35 percent stake in the 16-year-old company.
