SBI Life IPO to be priced at~685-700 a share

SBI Life Insurance, a joint venture between State Bank of India (SBI) and BNP Paribas Cardif, will come out with its initial public offering on September 20.

The issue, which is an offer for sale by the two promoters, will be priced in the band of ~685-700 per share.

In an announcement to the stock exchanges, State Bank of India said the IPO of the life insurance firm will close on September 22. SBI Life is expected to raise up to ~8,400 crore from its offer for sale of 120 million shares.

SBI will dilute 80 million shares and BNP Paribas Cardiff will offload 40 million shares, amounting to 12 per cent stake in the company.

The company had filed its draft red herring prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in July for its listing and a got a nod from the regulator in September.

In December 2016, its valuation was ~46,000 crore when KKR and Temasek purchased 1.95 per cent stake each at ~460 per share.

SBI Life will become the second life insurance company to get listed on the bourses after ICICI Prudential Life Insurance listed its business via an IPO last year. HDFC Life is also in line to list its business after having filed the DRHP in July.

SBI holds about 70.1 per cent of the shares in SBI Life; whereas BNP Paribas has a holding of 26 per cent in the joint venture. KKR, a private equity firm, and Temasek, a Singapore governmentowned investment company, hold the rest of the shares.

For FY17, SBI Life witnessed a 43 per cent year-onyear (y-o-y) growth in new business premium at ~10,144 crore, while gross written premium was up 33 per cent y-o-y at ~21,015 crore. Assets held on March 31, 2017, at ~97,737 crore, were up by 22 per cent over the previous year. Profit after tax stood at ~955 crore in FY17 versus ~861 crore in the year-ago period.