Categories
Excerpts

Standard Life to raise stake in HDFC Life

(Disclosure:I am market making in the shares of ICICI Pru Life)

British insurer and asset manager Standard Life plc (SL.L) said on Friday that it is seeking approval from Indian regulatory authorities to increase its stake in India’s HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Ltd.

Standard Life is seeking an increase in stake from 26 percent to 35 percent for a total consideration of about 169 million pounds ($264.45 million).

The company would be seeking approval from India’s Competition Commission of India, The Foreign Investment Promotion Board and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India following the passing of the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Act 2015 by the Indian Parliament.

The law will shake up India’s overcrowded life insurance sector, allowing global insurers such as Britain’s Prudential (PRU.L) — which holds a minority stake in India’s biggest private life insurer ICICI Prudential Life — and others to increase their Indian stakes.

The legislation could also pave the way for HDFC Life to move ahead with a planned listing of the company.-from Reuters

 

Categories
Music

Maa Tujhe Salaam

Wishing all Indians a Happy Independence Day.

Categories
Links

Weekend Mega Linkfest:August 14,2015

Some off beat reads for the weekend:

The lies and politics behind GST (Op India)

What Gandhis don’t want you to know about Adil Shahryar (DailyO)

When I was a Prisoner of War in Pakistan (Outlook)

Can India’s Parsis survive their own success? (Harpers)

ISIS enshrines a theology of rape (NYTimes)

The unretiring Serena Williams (NYMag)

How the Sinaloa drug cartel digs its tunnels (New Yorker)

Finland-The country most afraid of Russia (Harpers)

Spoof:Sushma Swaraj in Lok Sabha (Unreal Times)

Auto Ownership Review:Mercedes CLA45 (Team BHP)

A hanging in India (Shashi Tharoor)

Jinnah’s role in India’s first talkie Alam Ara (Scroll)

Mutual Fund Startup Scripbox gets funding of 16 Crores (YS)

Arnab’s hoax (Media Crooks)

Ashish Khetan:I leaked the Radia tapes (Newslaundry)

Categories
Excerpts

ICICI Lombard scores over HDFC Ergo

(Disclosure:I am market making in the shares of ICICI Lombard)
Given the stringent criteria set forth by national carrier Air India while inviting technical bids, a consortium of four state owned non-life insurers and private insurer ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company have qualified for providing insurance cover to it. Theseinsurers will have to submit financial bids by next month. Private insurer HDFC Ergo General Insurance failed to qualify for the technical bidding. The four state owned non-life insurers namely New India Assurance, Oriental Insurance, United India Insurance and National Insurance Company bid as a consortium. Unlike previous years where private and public sector general insurers formed separate groups to bid, and the overall group’s financial strength was evaluated, this time, the national carrier developed a detailed score system to evaluate each insurer’s financial strength.

“We were asked to submit details including networth, investments, assets under management, liquid assets, gross premium underwritten, market share, retention capacity, solvency margin. On every parameter, an insurer was given a score. Till last year, the overall score of a consortium (of insurers) was counted. But this year they said that the average score of a consortium would be counted. So the average score of ICICI Lombard would fall if another private insurer’s score is less. Therefore ICICI Lombard did not bid in a consortium with HDFC Ergo General Insurance but bid alone,” an industry official tod Financial Chronicle.

A senior official of HDFC Ergo General Insurance confirmed that the insurer has failed to qualify for the technical bidding. The airlines will now be sharing information on passenger growth they are projecting, growth in fleet size etc. Insurers would be appointing brokers to conduct road shows in the overseas reinsurance market. The financial bids have to be done by September said another insurance official.

Air India insurance policy is the country’s largest aviation policy and is due for renewal on October 1.-from DigitalFC

Categories
CoatTailing

Portfolio of Ashish Kacholia

This post is in continuation of my coat tailing series (see here)

To know what other top investors are  buying/holding/selling in India, subscribe to our Investor Wisdom Newsletter

Ashish Kacholia of Lucky Securities is a well known investor in the Indian Equity Markets.

His significant holdings in India aggregating around Rupees 326 Crores as on 30 June,2015 as per Stock Exchanges is given below:

Company Name Symbol/Code Entity Date End # of Shares % Value (Rs Crores)
Ashiana Housing Limited ASHIANA ASHISH KACHOLIA 201506 1322613 1.29 29.66
AXISCADES Engineering Technologies Limited AXISCADES ASHISH KACHOLIA 201506 375000 1.38 9.58
Eveready Industries India Limited EVEREADY Ashish Kacholia 201506 1550000 2.13 55.33
GATI Limited GATI Ashish Kacholia 201506 1500000 1.71 27.52
Lokesh Machines Limited LOKESHMACH Ashish Kacholia 201506 1000000 7.83 10.5
Navin Fluorine International Limited NAVINFLUOR ASHISH KACHOLIA 201506 242218 2.48 26.79
Pennar Industries Limited PENIND ASHISH KACHOLIA 201506 2500000 2.08 14.95
Pokarna Limited 532486 ASHISH KACHOLIA 201506 348315 5.62 40.78
SHAILY ENGINEERING PLASTICS LTD 501423 ASHISH KACHOLIA 201506 1000000 12.02 41.5
Shreyas Shipping & Logistics Limited SHREYAS ASHISH KACHOLIA 201506 526209 2.4 29.25
Vadilal Industries Limited VADILALIND ASHISH KACHOLIA 201506 231130 3.22 18.26
Vadilal Industries Limited VADILALIND SUSHMITA ASHISH KACHOLIA 201506 110279 1.53 8.71
Zen Technologies Limited ZENTEC ASHISH KACHOLIA 201506 1549456 2.01 14.98
Zen Technologies Limited ZENTEC SUSHMITA ASHISH KACHOLIA 201506 948642 1.23 9.17