Tokio Marine to hike stake in Edelweiss Life Insurance to 49%

Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance today said its foreign partner Tokio Marine will hike stake in the joint venture to 49 per cent.
Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance has filed an application with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board for hiking stake of the foreign partner from 26 per cent to 49 per cent, Edelweiss Financial Services said in a filing to the BSE.
The company, which started operations in 2011, is a joint venture between Edelweiss Financial Services and Japan's Tokio Marine Holdings Inc. It now has 59 branches across 49 cities in India.
Many companies have started the process of diluting stake in favour of their foreign partner as Parliament in March passed the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2015 which seeks to increase foreign investment in private sector companies to 49 per cent from the existing 26 per cent, among other things.

In January, UK's Bupa Insurance had said that it would raise stake in its Indian health insurance venture, Max Bupa, to 49 per cent from the current 26 per cent, becoming the first foreign company to announce a hike in shareholding, following amendments to insurance laws.
Recently, the government had approved French insurance firm AXA raising stake in its life insurance JV with Bharti Group to 49 per cent for Rs 858.6 crore.
Europe's Ageas is also exploring possibility to hike stake in IDBI Federal Life Insurance to 49 per cent.