New Delhi: As part of the Centre’s divestment plans, finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday proposed to merge three general insurance firms into one and list that entity on bourses.
Mr Jaitley said, “Three public sector general insurance companies — National Insurance, United India Assurance and Oriental India Insurance Company — will be merged into a single insurance company and be subsequently listed.”
The merger and subsequent listing is part of the Centre’s disinvestment drive through stake sale. Experts see this proposal as a positive development, with the estimated size of the merged entity estimated to be Rs 40,000 crore.
“It will be a profitable move and with an estimated size of around Rs 40,000 crore, capacity of the entity will be enhanced and there won’t be any need to depend upon reinsurance business to generate revenues as the three entities, based on their locations, are engaged into a host of services,” said Joydeep K Roy, PwC India.
