Max Life Insurance Company Ltd has acquired a pre-leased commercial building spread over 1.79 lakh sq ft in Pune, the company said in a statement.
The value of the transaction and the identity of the seller have not been disclosed.
However, a person familiar with the development told VCCircle the deal value is around Rs 175 crore ($26 million).
The office building is located at Magarpatta City in the Hadapsar area of Pune.
Max Life Insurance, which is a unit of billionaire Analjit Singh-led Max Financial Services Ltd, said the strategic investment is in line with the company’s long-term investment strategy to diversify the overall risk in its portfolio by investing in multiple asset classes.
These asset classes include fixed income, equities, real estate and alternative assets.
Rajesh Sud, executive vice-chairman and managing director of Max Life Insurance, said the firm's assets under management had grown from about Rs 25,000 crore in the financial year 2013-14 to over Rs 52,000 crore in 2017-18.
Mihir Vora, director and chief investment officer of Max Life Insurance, said the company is positive on both equities and fixed income investments over the long-term, given the growth that India is likely to achieve in the next decade.
Launched in 2000, Max Life Insurance is a joint venture between Max Financial Services and Japan’s Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company. Max Financial Services holds 70.75% stake in the company.
Max Life Insurance offers products covering life insurance, pension and health benefits including riders for individual and group segments. These products are distributed by individual agents, corporate agents, banks, brokers and other channels.
In 2016-17, Max Life Insurance’s gross written premium stood at Rs 10,780 crore.
Separately, Max Life Insurance is in the process of raising funds to pursue another acquisition opportunity.
Last month, Max Financial Services said its board had approved a plan to raise funds from KKR Capital Markets India Pvt. Ltd, TPG Global LLC and Standard Chartered Bank for this purpose.
Max Life has been trying to engineer M&As for more than a year. Last year, the Max group scrapped a planned merger of Max Life with HDFC Life Insurance Company Ltd because of regulatory hurdles.
Earlier this week, Mint reported that global private equity firms Blackstone Group and Warburg Pincus are in separate talks to invest in Max Financial Services for a minority stake.
Before that, The Economic Times had reported that Max Life Insurance Company and Exide Life Insurance Company had been shortlisted as potential buyers for a significant stake in IDBI Federal Life Insurance Company.
