Fairfax, which is controlled by investor Prem Watsa, known as the “Warren Buffett of Canada”, is considering reducing its stake in ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd, two people in the know told Mint.
Fairfax holds 9.91% stake in the listed general insurance company.
Investment bank ICICI Securities is advising Fairfax on the sale, which will be done through block trades soon, said one of the persons cited above. The person declined to comment on the size of the stake sale.
Previously, Fairfax had offloaded a 12.2% stake in the initial public offering (IPO) of the insurer in September, which valued the latter at Rs 30,000 crore. Through the sale, Fairfax pocketed Rs 3,601.50 crore.
Before the IPO, in May 2017, Fairfax agreed to sell a 12.18% stake for about $383 million (around Rs 2,372.5 crore then) to buyers including private equity firm Warburg Pincus.
In another development, Mumbai-based executive education tech startup Eruditus may raise $40 million (Rs 278.7 crore at current exchange rate) in a Series C funding, two people in the know told Mint. The platform, owned by Eruditus Learning Solutions Pte. Ltd, is in advanced negotiations with venture firm Sequoia Capital India to lead the round, the people said.
In July, VCCircle reported Eruditus had raised Rs 16 crore ($2.3 million) in venture debt from InnoVen Capital. InnoVen is the venture debt arm of Singapore state investment firm Temasek.
In April 2017, Eruditus had raised Rs 53 crore ($8.2 million) in a Series B round from Bertelsmann India.
The company offers professional development programmes for executives in India, Singapore and Dubai, among other countries. It offers online learning courses and short campus programmes. Eruditus’ courses are priced from $5,000 to $40,000, according to the company’s website.
Separately, an insolvency plea against power transmission company EMC Ltd has been admitted by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), two people in the know told The Economic Times. The firm has defaulted on payments to banks and other creditors worth ₹6,500 crore.
Operational creditors had filed the petition. The financial creditors of EMC are led by the State Bank of India. NCLT has appointed an interim bankruptcy resolution professional.
The number of NCLT cases to be resolved increased to 816 on 30 September from 723 on 30 June, said Investment Information Credit Rating Agency Ltd. About 30% of these cases have exceeded the 270-day time frame for bankruptcy resolution. Another 20% of the cases have crossed the 180-day time frame.
For the cases resolved so far, Investment Information Credit Rating Agency Ltd said the average duration has been about 260 days.
