“Talking with Hinduja and ADIA AXA Bharti AXA Life Insurance to acquire its stake in JV, but no concrete decision has been taken yet as talks are still around valuations,” a person aware of the deal talks told ET.
Another person familiar with the discussions said that AXA’s stake in Bharti AXA Life Insurance could be around $1 billion (about Rs 7,500 crore).
“Partnership for Growth is one of the founding principles of Hinduja Group… It (Group) always welcomes suitable like-minded partners when it comes to their investments in their existing verticals and areas around them including BFSI and Technology. It seeks interesting opportunities to broaden the
Global brokerage Jefferies is considered an advisor to the potential transaction, and due diligence is likely to end by early 2022, said people in investment banking circles.
Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Group holds 51 per cent stake in Bharti AXA Life Insurance.
At press time, spokespersons for ADIA and Bharti AXA Life Insurance declined to comment on ET’s queries. Questions from the Bharti group were also not answered at press time on Thursday.
The Hinduja Group, a century-old conglomerate with diversified interests from banking to automobiles, is reportedly keen to expand its insurance services game beyond bancassurance and distribution. The group entity, IndusInd Bank, is known to have colluded with several life insurance players to sell the latter’s insurance policies through the lender’s branches.
Gulf-based sovereign wealth fund, ADIA, is no stranger to insurance and has been an anchor investor in initial public offerings (IPOs) of ICICI Lombard, SBI Life Insurance and most recently Star Health Insurance in recent years. ,
Bharti AXA Life Insurance JV, which was established in 2006, has a pan-India presence through its 236 offices and offers a range of need-based insurance products targeted to individuals and groups. The company had recently said that despite tough economic conditions and the ongoing pandemic, its assets under management grew 36% to Rs 9,374 crore in FY11 from Rs 6,902 crore in FY10.
French insurer AXA increased its stake in its life and non-life insurance joint ventures with Bharti Enterprises to 49% some six years ago (from 26 percent earlier), when the government capped foreign ownership in local insurance companies. was reduced.