Reliance General Insurance scraps IPO plan; withdraws draft offer documents

Reliance General Insurance, part of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group, has decided to withdraw its proposed initial share sale offer.

The initial public offering (IPO) was slated for fresh issue of shares worth Rs 200 crore, besides an offer of sale of 79,489,821 shares by Reliance Capital.

Markets regulator Sebi had received draft red herring prospectus for the proposed IPO on February 8 through lead manager (LM) of the issue Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors.

However, the draft offer documents for the IPO have been "withdrawn by LM (Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors) vide email dated October 24, 2019," according to Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). Reasons for withdrawal of the offer documents have not been disclosed.

Any company looking to raise funds through sale of shares to public investors by way of instruments such as IPOs need to get a clearance from Sebi for the same. Proceeds of the proposed issue was to be utilised for future capital requirements, expected to arise from the growth and expansion of the business, improving solvency margin and consequently solvency ratio.

Earlier in October 2017, Reliance General Insurance approached Sebi with its IPO papers for which it received the the regulator's approval in November 2017. However, the company had failed to tap primary markets as lack of investors' appetite for the IPO, and volatile equity market conditions had forced the insurer to postpone its plans.