Life insurance firms would need to complete at least 10 years of operations before they can consider floating a public issue, the country’s insurance regulator has said in its draft guidelines and has also sought views of stakeholders by the end of this month.
The eligibility criteria in the proposed guidelines would also require an insurance company to have maintained the prescribed regulatory solvency margin at the end of the preceding six quarters.
Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority (IRDA) has also said, “No issuance and allotment of capital by an insurance company shall be in any form other than as fully paid-up equity shares.”
IRDA has said such insurance firms looking to go public would need to first approach the regulator for its ‘formal approval.’ IRDA will consider the applicant company’s overall financial position, the regulatory record and the proposal for issue of capital, prior to giving its ‘formal approval’ to the proposal.
Certain sections of the eligibility criteria for IRDA approval need further clarifications such as the proposed clause that the insurance company should have embedded value of at least twice the paid-up equity capital.
IRDA has also sought additional disclosures from life insurers, in addition to what is mandatory under the norms set by capital market regulator SEBI. In particular, life insurers will need to disclose risk factors specific to the insurance companies, besides meeting other routine disclosure policy.
