ICICI Lombard files for first IPO by non-life insurer, to dilute 19% equity

To offer 19% shares held by ICICI Bank & Fairfax, 5% kept for individual, HUF shareholders of parent

ICICI Lombard General Insurance on Friday said it would offer about 19 per cent of its shares in an initial public offer (IPO), in which parent ICICI Bank and a unit of Fairfax Financial Holdings will offload their shares.

This is the first time that a non-life insurance company has filed a draft red herring prospectus — a document submitted by a company (issuer) as part of a public offering of securities — for an IPO. In the prospectus, the insurer said it would offer 86,247,187 equity shares, at the face value of Rs 10 per share, representing about 19 per cent of its equity share capital.

ICICI Bank, the majority shareholder of ICICI Lombard general insurance, will dilute 31,761, 478 of its equity share, while FAL Corp, a unit of Fairfax Financial Holdings, will dilute up to 54,485,709 equity shares.

Around 5 per cent of the total shares offered for dilution, that is 4,312,359 equity shares, will be reserved for individual and Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) shareholders of ICICI Bank, the bank said in a statement to exchanges.

This is the second insurance company of ICICI group to go public. ICICI Prudential Life insurance, a subsidiary company of ICICI bank, got listed last year. It sold 12.63 per cent stake via an IPO and was valued at Rs 48,000 crore. The market cap of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance stands at Rs 69,531 crore after Friday's market close.

Earlier, Fairfax Financial Holdings had sold 12.18 per cent in ICICI Lombard to private equity firms Warburg Pincus (nine per cent), Clermont Group (1.59 per cent) and IIFL Special Opportunities Fund (1.59 per cent). After the sale, the share ownership in ICICI Lombard of ICICI Bank and Fairfax will be approximately 63 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively.

Several government-owned general insurance companies are also looking to list their business. Moreover, Reliance General Insurance will also float its IPO by the end of the financial year 2018 by offering 10 per cent equity for dilution.