Mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd is in advanced talks to buy Apollo Munich Health Insurance Company Ltd for around Rs 1,000 crore, a financial daily reported.
The Economic Times report said that HDFC is the preferred bidder and close to acquiring Apollo Munich Health, given that Munich Re already has a joint-venture with HDFC in the general insurance business. That makes it easy for the two entities to strike the deal, it added.
Apollo Munich is a joint-venture between Apollo Hospitals Group and Munich Re of Germany. Apollo holds a 51% stake in the company, while Munich Re has a 48.7% stake. The remaining is owned by the company’s employees.
HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company Ltd, is a joint venture between HDFC, and ERGO International AG, a unit of Munich Re Group. HDFC holds a 51% stake and the remaining is held by Ergo International.
In 2016, Munich Re had bought a 23.3% stake from Apollo Hospitals Group to increase its stake in the Apollo Munich Health to 48.7%.
The company’s gross direct written premium was Rs 992.93 crore for the nine months ended December 2017.
Embibe acquisition
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s family office is close to acquiring a majority stake in Individual Learning Pvt. Ltd, which runs online test preparation startup Embibe.com, for around Rs 100 crore, ET reported.
The acquisition has been planned keeping in mind the requirements of Reliance Jio Infocomm, an unnamed person told the financial daily.
Founded in 2012 by Aditi Avasthi, Mumbai-based Embibe is a test preparation platform for engineering, medical and banking entrance exams. In 2014, it had raised $4 million from early-stage investment firm Kalaari Capital and Lightbox Ventures.
In 2016, it had raised another Rs 10 crore ($1.5 million) from Lightbox as part of its Series B funding round, according to VCCEdge, the data research platform of News Corp VCCircle.