Budget 2018: Three public sector general insurers to be merged, listed as one entity

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26 Aug, 2025 12:21

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Three large public sector general insurance companies, United India Insurance, National Insurance and Oriental Insurance will be merged and listed on the stock exchanges, said finance minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech.

For live updates from Budget 2018, click here.

"We will merge the three companies and subsequently list them," said Jaitley. This will be the biggest ever merger in the insurance sector with the merged entity having a valuation exceeding Rs 1 lakh crore.

Earlier in 2017, the Cabinet had given a nod for listing of all the state-owned general insurance companies. Post this, General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re) and New India Assurance were listed on the exchanges in the second half of 2017.

But, owing to the below average financial performance of some of the companies, their initial public offering (IPO) were deferred.

Among the other state-owned insurers, National Insurance had already made plans to list independently on the exchanges. Its chairman and managing director K Sanath Kumar had earlier told Moneycontrol that they will be listing by June 2018.

Reacting to the finance minister's decision to merge the entities, Sanath Kumar told Moneycontrol that this is a pragmatic move and will help create better values.

In the general insurance space, ICICI Lombard General Insurance and New India Assurance was listed in 2017.

Sources said that the solvency rates are low, below the minimum requirement of 1.5, for Oriental Insurance and United India Insurance. National Insurance, which had its solvency drop to below 1.5, was able to bring it back.