RIL buys Bharti stake in Axa joint ventures

13 Jun 2011 Evaluate

Reliance Industries took yet another step of building a financial services empire by agreeing to buy out the Bharti Group from its insurance joint ventures with French insurer Axa. Bharti held 74 per cent stake in the insurance ventures, with AXA the balance 26 per cent – the maximum permissible foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Indian insurance space. The acquisition price was not disclosed by both the companies. According to the proposed deal, which will need clearances from insurance regulator Irda and Competition Commission of India, RIL and its associate Reliance Industrial Infrastructure (RIIL) will have 57 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively, while AXA will continue to have 26 per cent.Once the FDI limit is raised, AXA will have the option of picking up another 24 per cent from Reliance.The Insurance Amendment Bill, which is awaiting Parliament’s nod for a long time, has proposed a maximum of 49 per cent stake.

Bharti on the other hand let go the financial services businesses as it did not fit into the company’s long-term growth plans. Bharti intends to use the proceeds from selling off its interests in these joint ventures towards other group businesses in India and abroad. Insurance will be the second major sector in which RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani will directly compete with his younger brother Anil Ambani who owns Reliance Life and Reliance General. RIL’s entry into the insurance sector became possible after the termination of a non-compete clause which was signed during the demerger of Reliance Group in 2005. Reliance Life had recently roped in Japanese insurer Nippon Life by selling 26 per cent stake for Rs 3,062 crore.

Although the companies did not share the deal value, the valuation of the life insurance deal would be much lower than the Reliance-Nippon deal due to Bharti-AXA’s lackluster performance. The first year premium of Bharti AXA Life Insurance has dropped 17 per cent to Rs 362 crore in 2010-11. However, gross premium of the general insurance company increased 77 per cent to Rs 550 crore in 2010-11.crackcrack

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