One year after the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority's (Irda) allowed insurance companies to invest in venture capital (VC) funds, no insurer has shown interest in funding VCs.
The Mahindra Holidays initial public offer --the third public float in the current year and the single largest issue over the last 12 months--was subscribed 11 times and four companies raised an estimated Rs 4,000 crore yesterday through QIPs. This came after realtor Unitech's announcement on Friday that it has raised over Rs 2,700 crore via a QIP at Rs 81 a share.
Kingfisher pays 37 per cent higher premium while Air India defers renewal. "The Air France crash is expected to provide a $600-$700 million hit (to global insurance companies), which is 40 per cent of the total premium collected, and therefore hardening of reinsurance rates was evident. We had seen prices go up from $2 billion to $4 billion after the 9/11 attacks (in the US)," said ICICI Lombard Reinsurance Head Rajiv Kumaraswamy.
CitiFinancial, Citibank India's non-banking finance arm, has reduced its asset book by one-third and its branch network by a quarter of the year-ago level as part of a restructuring exercise, Citi CEO for South Asia Mark T Robinson told Business Standard.
Life insurance premium rates are likely to drop over the next few months owing to longer life expectancy, with a new mortality and morbidity table expected to be in place by the fourth quarter of 2009 to replace the current one, which is of 1994-96 vintage.
Move follows pressure from insurers, who say they are losing on these payments.
Sources close to the development said the finance ministry was yet to receive a formal proposal to this effect from the bank, though SBI chairman OP Bhatt had recently said the lender had sought government permission to raise Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 bn).
ESPN had paid Rs $ 1.1 billion for broadcaster rights in 2006 for the telecast rights till 2015.
Kingfisher Airlines, National Aviation Company of India Limited -- the state-owned company that runs Air India -- and Indigo could face additional cost pressures, with reinsurance rates expected to harden following the accident involving the Air France aircraft that was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 passengers on board.
OECD has identified at least four tax jurisdictions -- Jamaica, Qatar, Botswana and Ghana - whose tax information system would be studied to find out if they are emerging as the new tax havens following the crackdown on the existing ones. A unique tax identification number would be akin to a global permanent account number for Indian taxpayers which could remain the same across jurisdictions.
After reporting low numbers in new business premium, life insurance companies are resorting to special initiatives to increase business from the rural segment, which they term as emerging markets.
As part of wage settlement, new recruits will be asked to shift to the New Pension Scheme.
Though the overall environment seems to be improving, Reliance Capital CEO Sam Ghosh tells Business Standard that the company is opting to be cautious.
In order to improve the quality of service rendered by third-party administrators, a committee formed by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority has recommended that general insurers should hire at least two agencies to execute back office jobs for settlement of health insurance claims. In addition, to improve the coverage and quality of services provided by TPAs, the panel has suggested that the minimum capital requirement should be doubled.
Taking advantage of attractive valuations, life insurers bought equities in the bulk deal segment during the last six months against selling by them during June-November 2008.
The government has reopened the case for convergence between the capital market and commodity futures regulator, a move that has attracted opposition from the Forward Markets Commission, which regulates the commodities futures business.
Having got the regulatory clearance to offer add-on insurance policies, non-life insurers are now preparing to launch the same in the coming weeks. Some of the insurers have said, however, that they need some time to launch these products. They say that, unlike commercial products which can be launched straight away, products meant for retail consumers need a certain level of preparation before they are ready for sale.
Fund managers queued up to grab a pie of the new pension scheme that opens for subscription on May 1. But even before the scheme is launched, they are complaining of it being a loss-making business with the investment management fee fixed at 0.009 per cent.
In an interview with Business Standard's Shyamal Majumdar and Sidhartha, Kochhar says she is going to focus on the immediate challenge of correcting the cost structure of the country's second largest bank.
Former Axis Bank chairman and CEO PJ Nayak said managements should look at appointing outsiders only when the organisation is weak.
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