IDBI Federal Insurace hires JPMorgan for sale of promoters’ stake

Global investment bank JPMorgan has been appointed to sell the stake of the promoters in IDBI Federal Life Insurance. IDBI Bank, Federal Bank and Belgian insurer Ageas are the promoters of the insurer. “JPMorgan has started the process to find the new buyer(s),” said an insider at one of these promoters, who did not wish to be identified. E-mails and calls made to the JPMorgan spokeperson did not yield any response. IDBI Bank owns a 48 per cent stake in the life insurance entity. The former has been under stress because of a rise in bad loans and negative returns on assets. In May, the Reserve Bank of India invoked its rule on Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) against the bank. Following this, the latter announced it was selling off non-core assets worth Rs 5,000 crore. At the end of 2016-17, IDBI Federal had a little more than a million policies, with a sum assured of Rs 58,654 crore. Its total of assets under management was Rs 6,090 crore and the capital base was over Rs 800 crore. It operates through 3,000-odd branches of IDBI Bank and Federal Bank, and its distribution partners.