- Axis Bank is acquiring an additional 29 percent stake in Max Life Insurance which will raise the total stake of the private lender in the insurer to 30%.
Axis Bank’s board has approved the acquisition of an additional 29 percent stake in Max Life Insurance which will raise the total stake of the private lender in the insurer to 30%. Max Financial Services currently owns a 72.5 percent stake in Max Life and a 25.5 percent stake in Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance (MSI). The life insurer also has a small interest in Axis Bank. Axis Bank is the 3rd largest private bank and Max Life is India’s 4th largest private life insurer.
Max Life will become a 70:30 joint venture between Max Financial Services and Axis Bank after completion of the sequence of transactions. The proposed transactions are subject to appropriate corporate and regulatory approval.
In 2019, the Max Life Insurance Company had a turnover of about 19,987 crores.
Axis Bank expects completion of the deal within six to nine months, subject to regulatory approvals.
For more than a decade, Axis Bank and Max Life Insurance have had a business partnership providing more than 19 lakh customers with long term savings and security products. The total premium produced through this partnership has gathered more than Rs. 38,000 crores.
Amitabh Chaudhry, MD, and CEO of Axis Bank, announcing the transaction said: “We continue to believe in the long-term prospects of India’s underpenetrated life insurance space, given the current climate. Despite our long-standing, high-performing relationship with Max Life, we see this joint venture generating tremendous value for our stakeholders. We believe that this transaction will allow us to deepen our working relationship leading to better-integrated teams and infrastructure, and a superior alignment in our approach.
Analjit Singh, Founder, and Chairman, Max Group, said: “I believe that we have found an outstanding partner at Axis, and we are confident that this will make Max Life considerably stronger, better performing and profitable for the franchise. We’re going to run the company as if it’s an equal partnership, a concept that has held us in good stead earlier. “Axis Bank shares were trading 3.5 percent higher at some 442.
Max India Limited was established in 1985, by Analjit Singh. In 2000, the first Max healthcare center was opened in New Delhi, and it developed into an Indian hospital chain.
Max Life Insurance Company Limited in India is a life insurance company. The company is a subsidiary of Max Financial Services Limited, which is publicly traded and is India’s largest non-bank private-sector life insurer.
