PNB MetLife India Insurance Co. Ltd, which is among India’s top 10 life insurers by market share, has filed a draft prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to float an initial public offering.
The public issue is a complete secondary sale by state-owned lender and majority owner Punjab National Bank Ltd, joint venture partner American multinational insurance major MetLife, Inc., and other corporate bodies and institutional shareholders.
The IPO comprises a sale of 495.89 million shares and will result in roughly 24.64% stake dilution on a post-issue basis, the draft prospectus showed.
VCCircle was the first to report last July about MetLife’s plans to list PNB MetLife via an IPO.
Last month, VCCircle also reported that MetLife was looking to raise its stake in the Indian life insurance business.
PNB MetLife joins a growing list of Indian insurance companies – general and life – that have either firmed up plans to go for IPO or have already gone public.
These include state-owned insurance firms National India Assurance and General Insurance Corporation of India, besides HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co and Reliance General Insurance Co.
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance became the first life insurer in India to go public last year.