NIA IPO may take 6-month time after govt nod: CMD

Public sector insurer New India Assurance (NIA) today said it will take six-month time to divest its stake through the IPO after it gets government approval.
"We are awaiting cabinet approval for the Initial Public Offer (IPO) plan. Once it happens, we will start the process (of IPO). And it can take about six-month time," Srinivasan told reporters on the sidelines of FICCI's Annual Health Insurance Conference here today.
For the IPO process, the company's board has already given the approval and has recommended it to the government.
Mumbai-headquartered NIA is a 100 per cent government owned multinational general insurance company operating in 28 countries.

The company is expecting over 20 per cent growth in the current fiscal, he said, adding lot of growth is driven by agricultural insurance.
"Even other lines of business, we are seeing tremendous growth. So, we are looking at crossing Rs 21,000 crore business in the current financial year. There is a lot of growth from various sectors," he added.

The company's global premium growth was at 14.46 per cent in 2015-16 at Rs 18,371 crore.
On asked about general insurance sector's demand for the budget, Srinivasan said the industry wants some relief on TDS on reinsurance premiums as well as tax breaks for personal insurances.

"We have been asking for giving us some relief from TDS in reinsurance premiums. Besides, there should be tax breaks for personal lines of business like for home owners, accidents (insurance)," he said.
He also said there must be an increased tax exemption for health insurance because with tax incentive, lot of people will take these kind of policies.
"The industry has also passed on the request to the government for some kind of relief on (passing) profit from sale of investment...Becaues we are supporting the stock market," Srinivasan added.
On the government's move of demonetising old Rs 500 and 1,000 notes, he said the NIA faced some problems initially as there was a shortfall in the cash premium collection.

"But now at this point of time, we don't see any problem," he added.