ICICI Prudential keen to buy out Sahara Life Insurance

In a rare intervention last month, the insurance regulator IRDAI had taken over the management of Subrata Roy- run insurance company saying that the insurer was "acting in a manner" prejudicial to the interest of subscribers.

"We would like to confirm that we have expressed our interest in evaluating taking over policyholders' liabilities and assets of Sahara Life," ICICI Prudential Life Insurance said in a regulatory filing to stock exchanges on Tuesday. ICICI Prudential Life, the first Indian insurance company to get listed, further said it was evaluating the way forward for taking over Sahara Life.

"The last reported policyholders' liabilities of Sahara Life is about Rs 900 crore, which is less than 1 percent of the company's balance sheet size," it said.

On June 12, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) had appointed one of its general managers as administrator to manage the affairs of Sahara Life.

The regulator had said it has "reasons" to believe that Sahara India Life Insurance Company "is acting in a manner likely to be prejudicial to the interest of holders of life insurance policies".

Sahara Life had sold 665 policies worth Rs 1.53 crore during the April-May period of the current fiscal.

Capital markets regulator Sebi will auction a property owned by Sahara in Uttarakhand, for a total reserve price of little over Rs 223 crore, on July 28, as part of the process to recover funds from the beleaguered group.

In a public notice on Tuesday, the Securities and Exchange Board of India said that SBI Capital Markets has been mandated to e-auction 82.93 acres of land located in the village - Bahadarabad and Ranipur in Haridwar, Uttarakhand. Sebi had lined up as many as five land parcels of Sahara for an e-auction.