India may name advisers for $1.6 billion stake sale in insurers within months

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India is likely to within months name advisers for its planned listing of five state-run general insurers to raise as much as $1.6 billion this year, bankers said.

In its budget published on Wednesday, the Indian government said it would sell unspecified stakes in New India Assurance Co Ltd, United India Insurance Co Ltd, Oriental Insurance Co Ltd, National Insurance Co Ltd, and reinsurer General Insurance Corp of India in the financial year starting in April.

Bankers expect the sales to happen by December.

India's federal cabinet approved the insurance stake sales in January, and the government had said at the time that they planned to cut their stakes in the companies in one or more tranches to 75 percent from 100 percent currently.

India's IPO market had its best year in six in 2016, led by a $900 million share sale in ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co Ltd, the biggest private sector life insurer. BSE Ltd, formerly Bombay Stock Exchange, is set to list on Friday after a 12.43 billion rupees ($184 million) IPO.

($1 = 67.4100 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Clara Ferreira-Marques and Himani Sarkar)