Reliance Life listing: Anil awaits IRDA nod

Industrialist Anil Ambani on Tuesday said that his group was looking to unlock value in its life insurance venture through listing of Reliance Life as a separate company on the bourses.

"As you know, Reliance Life was the first Indian insurance company to announce its plans for listing in 2009," he told shareholders at Reliance Capital's AGM here.

Reliance Life is a subsidiary of Reliance Capital, the financial services arm of the Anil Ambani group.

Ambani said that the insurance regulator, IRDA, was currently at an advanced stage of finalising the guidelines for the listing of life insurance companies. "Once this is done, we will explore the possibility of creating value for our investors by listing our life insurance business," he said.

In a separate insurance conference here, IRDA Chairman J Hari Narayan said that the IPO guidelines for life insurers would soon be announced and was currently awaiting clearance from the capital market regulator Sebi.

Ambani said that there was huge growth potential in the Indian insurance space. "India's insurance premium, as a percentage of GDP, stand at just 4 per cent, far lower than countries like United Kingdom where it stands at 16 per cent.

The headroom for growth is limitless," he said. Ambani said that Reliance Capital was poised to capitalise on the immense growth opportunity across its business segments like insurance.

Reliance Capital Chairman further said that it was already one of India's top three private life insurers and figured among the country's leading private general insurers.