First health insurer in India seeks to go public

Mumbai: Religare Health Insurance, now renamed Care Health Insurance, plans to become the first Indian standalone health insurance company to go public.The board and the insurer’s other institutional investors – Kedaara Capital and Union Bank of India – have approved an initial public offering with Care Health CEO Anuj Gulati leading the proceedings, Religare Enterprises executive chairperson Rashmi Saluja told ET in an exclusive interview.“We want to follow the most transparent and best regulatory practices,” said Saluja. “The insurance regulator is also keen on more companies to become public. At this point, the challenge is how and when, but the road has been laid down.”While Saluja didn’t divulge specifics of the listing proceedings, citing Covid-19-related uncertainties, she said the process has started with due internal approvals.77882483“We have a good set of institutional investors with great expertise and as a company, we want the process to be fair for everyone. Going public would be the next step,” said Saluja. “We don’t know, however, when the zero period for the pandemic is getting over. Our clock will start clicking only once the pandemic ends.”The Religare Group’s stake in its flagship insurance venture was lowered by about 18 per cent in June, when private equity firm Kedaara Capital came on board as co-promoter, investing about Rs 567 crore. The capital infusion valued the health insurance business at about Rs 3,150 crore. The remaining 10 per cent stake is held by state-owned Union Bank of India and employees.Gulati told ET that part of the infused capital was used to shore up the solvency margin above the minimum requirement of 150 per cent.“We expect robust business going forward and hence raised this capital ahead of its time,” said Gulati. “Our solvency after the infusion is at 270 per cent, which gives us headroom for growth. We would also invest in technology and human capital.”As per the latest regulatory data, Religare has underwritten premiums worth Rs 713 crore up to July in FY21, which is about 9 per cent lower than the Rs 786 crore business done in the same period last year. The seven standalone health insurers in the country have together underwritten premiums worth Rs 4,806 crore in this period, registering a growth of 23 per cent over last year on the back of increased demand from consumers for health cover amid the pandemic.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3bhlyCo