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A swathe of Indian insurers are readying IPOs that could raise some $3bn between them in the next several months, riding a resurgent FIG wave in the country. Expectations are running high that more transactions will hit screens in the second half of the year. John Loh reports.
ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co and SBI Life Insurance Co filed their respective listing applications just days apart this week, as HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co decided on Monday to float after its merger-plus-backdoor listing proposal failed to obtain regulatory approval.
All three are backed by blue chip sponsors and some of India's biggest banks. They are heading to the market as quickly as they can to get ahead of the expected crest in FIG supply, bankers say.
A Mumbai-based syndicate banker working on several of these flotations said investor education has kicked off for both ICICI Lombard and SBI Life. The two are running almost parallel marketing schedules and roadshows, with bookbuilding planned for the same week.
"We are fast-tracking SBI Life," a head of ECM at an Indian bank said. "It's a huge offering, so there's no reason we shouldn't complete it as soon as possible."
The IPOs come as FIG equity issuance in India has been on a tear. The $5.9bn chalked up this year to date far outstrips any comparable period going back to 2012, according to Dealogic. The closest issuance volumes were in 2012, when $3.4bn was printed.
And the exuberance for...