In four months, ICICI Lombard General Insurance valuations jump 50%

Private general insurance company ICICI Lombard, which was valued at around Rs 20,000 crore in May 2017, has seen a 50 percent jump in its valuations to Rs 30,000 crore. ICICI Lombard is bringing out its initial public offering (IPO) which opens on September 15, 2017 and will close on September 19, 2017.

The price band has been fixed from Rs 651 to Rs 661 per equity share and Rs 5615 crore will be raised from the offer for sale. This has valued the insurer between Rs 29,500 crore and Rs 30,000 crore.

The funds raised from the IPO will go to the bank. The minimum capital requirement or solvency of ICICI Lombard is above the prescribed limit of 1.5 and stands at 2.13.

In May, ICICI Lombard General Insurance had said that its foreign partner, Canada-based Fairfax, offloaded part stake of 12.18 percent to a clutch of investors, including Warburg Pincus for around Rs 2480 crore.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, ICICI Securities and IIFL Holdings are the global coordinators and book-running managers for the offer. The book running lead managers are CLSA India, Edelweiss Financial Services and JM Financial Institutional Securities.

Kaku Nakhate, President and India Country Head, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said that it is a well-priced IPO and that the earlier deal was between the shareholders. “The valuations reflect the earnings as also the fact that the economy is on a growth path.”

ICICI Lombard is the largest private sector general insurance company. It holds 18 percent market share in the private non-life sector and 8.4 percent market share in the overall non-life sector.

Market experts said that the multiples, both in terms of overall price to book value and price to earnings, have reflected that and most of the financial sector companies have seen an increase in value creation.