Tag: icicipru

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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

 

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AGM

What I heard and saw at the ICICI Pru Life AGM on 25 June,2015

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

I attended the ICICI Pru Life AGM today .

Was the only external shareholder to attend !!

Here is what I heard and saw:

  1. The Company Secretary  read out the resolutions.They were moved ,seconded and passed by the shareholders
  2. The resolutions were:
  • Adoption of Accounts
  • Approval of Dividend-total dividend for the year is 5.85 Rs/share.The Board reiterated its commitment to have as high a dividend payout as possible
  • Re-appointment of Adrian O’Connor as Director
  • Re-appointment of Puneet Nanda as Director
  • Re-appointment of S R Batliboi as Auditors
  • Approval of remuneration of Mr.Sandeep Bakshi,MD
  • Approval of remuneration of Mr.Puneet Nanda,ED
  • Approval of remuneration of Mr.Sandeep Batra,ED

As expected,the AGM quickly got over.

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Excerpts

ICICI Pru Ulip bet pays off

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

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company is reaping the benefit of focusing on unit-linked insurance plans (Ulips).

The private sector insurer is witnessing a robust growth in its new business premium as Ulips are back in favour among savers with stocks hitting record levels. The share of Ulips in the company’s product basket has also inched up.

Ulips are insurance-cum-investment plans where some portion of the premium goes towards providing an insurance cover and the rest is invested in equities or debt, or a mix of both. They were extremely popular before 2008 partly because of the returns they offered despite high charges.

After the global meltdown in 2008, Ulips fell out of favour as the high charges impacted the returns. However, the bull run at the stock markets, declining interest rates over the past one year and the rationalisation of charges by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) have brought the shine back to these instruments.

Ulips accounted for around 42 per cent of the new business premium in 2010-11 but declined to 7 per cent in 2013-14. However, during the first half of the current fiscal, their contribution has risen to 9 per cent. This uptrend has been led by the private sector where their share has risen to 34 per cent during April-September 2014 from 29 per cent in 2013-14.

For ICICI Prudential Life, Ulips now account for a little over 84 per cent in terms of retail weighted received premium for the nine month period ended December against 63.4 per cent in the corresponding period of last year and 66.5 per cent in the previous fiscal. Retail new business premium increased nearly 37 per cent to Rs 3,153 crore from Rs 2,307 crore in the year-ago period. Sources said the private life insurer had also been able to better industry growth rates during the period.-from Telegraph India

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Excerpts

Standard Life keen to raise stake in HDFC Life

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

STANDARD Life is expected to use some of the financial firepower it has gained from the £2.2 billion sale of its Canadian operations to boost its presence in the Indian market.

The Edinburgh-based firm, which last week said investors were in line for a bumper £1.75bn windfall following the sale of its Canadian arm to Manulife, already has a 26 per cent stake in HDFC Life, one of India’s largest life insurers, and chief executive David Nish is keen to see that holding strengthened. After handing back the bulk of the Canadian sale proceeds to shareholders, the group will have about £450 million left over, which it said would be used for “general corporate purposes”.

Rather than seeking out a fresh takeover target, sources said that Standard Life was now more likely to focus on the organic growth of its UK business and lifting its stake in HDFC Life.

With Narendra Modi’s BJP sweeping to victory in May’s general election, the country’s government is planning to implement rules allowing foreign investors to own up to 49 per cent of local firms.

Nish has already said that he would “look positively” on any opportunity to increase the group’s holding in HDFC Life, which has more than 400 branches and almost 14,000 employees around the country.

Life insurance penetration in India is about 3.2 per cent of gross domestic product in terms of premiums a year, much lower than Japan’s level of more than 10 per cent and almost 6 per cent in Australia.

State-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India controls about 70 per cent of the life insurance market, but the Modi administration is “more open to inward investment and foreign ownership”, said Garry White, chief investment commentator at Charles Stanley.

The new regime could open up more opportunities for other companies with local joint ventures, such as the Dutch parent group of Edinburgh-based insurer Aegon UK.-from Scotsman

 

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Excerpts

ICICI to list insurance units when valuations are optimum

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

Top private sector lender ICICI Bank will consider listing its two insurance units to unlock value at an opportune time when it feels that valuations are optimum, the bank’s chief Chanda Kochhar has said.

We will take this step when we feel that the valuations are really optimum. We can mainly look at two insurance companies — life and general insurance units,” Kochhar said.

While making it clear that there were no immediate plans for listing of any of its subsidiaries, she said, “Clearly, at some point of time we will look at some amount of unlocking of value, more so from the point of view that it establishes a benchmark and it is always good to have a benchmark.

“But the thing is that we do not really need capital, whether it is in the bank or in the insurance company,” Kochhar said.

In ICICI Bank’s latest annual report, Kochhar had said that the bank’s subsidiaries achieved healthy performance in fiscal 2014.

“Our life insurance subsidiary sustained its profitability and maintained its position as the largest private sector life insurer in the country. Our general insurance subsidiary saw strong improvement in profitability in fiscal 2014 while maintaining its market leadership position among private players.” – from ET