HDFC Life's Rs 8695-crore IPO opens on November 7

The Rs 8695 crore initial public offering (IPO) of private private life insurer HDFC Standard Life Insurance will open on November 7 and close on November 9. At the upper end of the price brand, the insurer has been valued at Rs 58260 crore.

The price band for the offer is fixed from Rs 275 per equity share to Rs 290 per equity share. This will be the third life insurer after ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and SBI Life Insurance to be listed on the stock markets.

It consists of an initial public offering up to 299,827,818 equity shares of face value of ₹10 each (“equity shares”) which comprises an offer for sale of 191,246,050 equity shares by Housing Development Finance Corporation and up to 108,581,768 equity shares by Standard Life (Mauritius Holdings) 2006 Limited.

The offer will constitute 14.92 percent of the fully diluted post-offer paid-up equity share capital of the company, ie; assuming all vested employee stock options and the net offer shall constitute 13.28 percent of the fully vested post-offer paid-up equity share capital of the company i.e. assuming exercise of all vested employee stock options.

HDFC Life's listing will be an IPO after a duration of 22 years from amongst the HDFC group companies.

Deepak Parekh, Chairman, HDFC Life said that the pricing has taken into consideration the extensive dialogues with stakeholders and added that this will provide an opportunity for retail investors to participate. "We think the pricing for some of the past issues has not been right and believe that our IPO will attract retail buyers," he added.

HDFC Life was among the first insurance companies to announce its IPO plans. However, it was delayed due to market conditions earlier and also due to the cancelling of the merger talks between HDFC Life and Max Life. As per this deal, post the merger, HDFC Life was to be automatically listed on the stock exchanged through reverse listing.