Centre okays French AXA’s hike in Bharti insurance JVs to 49%

The government has approved French insurance firm AXA raising stake in its life insurance joint venture with Bharti Group to 49 per cent for Rs 858.6 crore. 

The French firm has also been permitted to raise stake in the general insurance joint venture with Bharti. This will entail capital flow of Rs 431.40 crore. Together, AXA’s FDI in Bharti group will be worth Rs 1,290 crore. Both the insurance deals were multi-structured transactions. These are the first FDI proposals cleared after the passage of Insurance Bill in March that allowed raising of foreign investment cap from 26 per cent to 49 per cent.

More foreign partners are expected to come forward and raise stake in the Indian insurance business. These two were among the 19 foreign direct investment proposals approved by the government on Tuesday. Based on the recommendations of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) in its meeting held on April 9, the central government has approved 19 proposals of Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) amounting to Rs 2,165.04 crore approximately, a finance ministry statement said. Among others, Mylan Laboratories’ FDI proposal worth Rs 128.77 crore has also been cleared. 

The pharma firm had sought prior approval for increase in the level of FDI in the company by existing non-resident shareholders, MP Laboratories (Mauritius) Ltd. and Mylan Luxembourg pursuant to a composite scheme of arrangement. At the same time, Rs 124-crore proposal of another pharma company Par Formulations Private Ltd was also considered and cleared. Curatio Healthcare’s proposal of Rs 93.43 crore has also been approved.

The FIPB also cleared FCC Clutch India’s proposal of 444.50 crore. FCC India had sought permission to acquire additional 50 per cent equity stake (represented by 39,50,000 equity shares) in FCC Rico from FCC Co Ltd, the consideration for which would be discharged by swap of shares.