ICICI Prudential Life files papers for biggest IPO in six years

MUMBAI: ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, one of India’s largest private sector companies, has filed draft papers with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to raise an estimated ₹5,000 crore through an initial public offering (IPO), the first by an insurer in India and the biggest in nearly six years.

The company is a venture between ICICI Bank and UK’s Prudential Corp Holdings. ICICI Bank has 68% stake, while Prudential holds 26%. Azim Premji and Singapore’s Temasek hold the remaining 6%.

ICICI plans to sell up to 181.34 million equity shares, or about 12.65% of its stake, via the IPO. Prudential is not selling its stake in the IPO. It will include a reservation of up to 18.1 million shares, 10% of the offer, for individual and Hindu Undivided Family shareholders of ICICI Bank, the the company said in a filing to the stock exchanges.

ICICI Bank’s shares rose 1.2% after reports of the IPO, but ended down 0.75% on the BSE.

After a good year for IPOs last year, activity in the primary market has further picked up this year. In the first three months of 2016-17, companies raised ₹5,855 crore through share sales, highest in the last nine years for the same period, according to Prime Database. Moreover, around 19 companies have received Sebi’s approval to raise over ₹7,700 crore.