GIC, NIA to be listed before October

The government is likely to list the two biggest of its five state-owned general insurers, namely General Insurance Corp (GIC), and New India Assurance (NIA), in the first half of FY18. 

The centre expects good valuation on them once they make their market debut and will firm up plans for listing other insurers based only on the response from investors, Business Standard has learnt.

The three other insurers which the finance ministry wants to list include National Insurance, Oriental Insurance and United India Insurance.

“The plan is for market debuts of the two largest unlisted insurers, GIC and NIA, before October 2017. Only after gauging the market response and appetite among investors will we prepare the listing of the other three insurers,” said a senior government official.

The person said that listing of these insurers will be done through initial public offering of existing government equity and also through offering of fresh equity to ensure that eventually the centre complies with the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s rule of not more than 75 per cent holding in listed state-owned companies.

In January, the cabinet committee on economic affairs, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the market listing of the five insurers.

They will not need fresh cabinet approval before hitting the bourses but will be cleared by a group of ministers consisting of Jaitley and transport minister Nitin Gadkari. 

The total budgeted disinvestment target of Rs 72,500 crore for FY18 also includes Rs 11,000 crore, expected to come in from the five insurers.