ICICI Bank, Fairfax to pare stakes in Indian insurer ICICI Lombard IPO

REUTERS - India's ICICI Bank Ltd and Canada's Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd will pare their stakes in joint venture insurer ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co Ltd's planned initial public offering (IPO) of shares, the insurer said on Monday.

While the size and other details of the IPO will be decided at a future date, ICICI Lombard said the two shareholders in the company had informed it of their intention to sell part of their holdings by way of an offer for sale.

ICICI Bank owns 63.3 percent of ICICI Lombard, the largest private sector non-life insurer in India.

Fairfax, led by Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa, will own 22.1 percent of the insurer after its planned sale of a 12.2 percent stake in ICICI Lombard to an affiliate of Warburg Pincus and two other investors is completed.

Fairfax's stake sales valued ICICI Lombard at 203 billion rupees ($3.15 billion).

($1 = 64.3550 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Krishna V Kurup in Bengaluru; Editing by Devidutta Tripathy and Mark Potter)