ICICI Lombard will acquire Bharti AXA General Insurance

 

ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Limited and Bharti AXA General Insurance Company Limited have announced on Saturday that they are bringing their insurance business together through a share swap deal, the entity that will become the third highest in the country after the deal. Large insurance unit will be formed. Arrangements with Bharti AXA General Insurance Company have been approved after the board meetings on Friday. ICICI Lombard will acquire Bharti AXA General Insurance as part of the arrangement.

 

The proposed Rs 4,500 crore deal would make ICICI Lombard General Insurance the third-largest company in the general insurance or non-life insurance sector. Bharti Enterprises currently holds a 51 per cent stake in Bharti AXA General Insurance. The remaining 49 per cent is held by French insurance company AXA.

 

ICICI Lombard and Bharti AXA General Insurance said in a joint statement that under the deal, shareholders of Bharti AXA General Insurance will get two shares of ICICI Lombard for every 115 shares of the company. Currently, the promoter ICICI Bank Ltd (ICICI Bank Ltd) holds 51.89 per cent stake in ICICI Lombard, while the rest is held by the public. After the proposed deal, the promoter's stake would fall to 48.11 per cent.

 

After the split, both Bharti Enterprises and AXA will exit the general insurance business and Bharti AXA General Insurance will cease to function. After this acquisition, the annual premium on a collective basis will increase to Rs 16,447 crore and the market share will be around 8.7 per cent.