The Indian government plans to merge three state-owned insurers — Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd., National Insurance Co. Ltd. and United India Insurance Co. Ltd. — and subsequently list the merged entity, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Feb. 1.
Jaitley announced the plan during his fiscal 2018-2019 budget speech. The three insurers were approved for listing in principle in 2017. The move is part of the government's plan to raise 800 billion rupees in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2019, from the sale of stakes in state-owned companies. Jaitley said the government expects to raise 1 trillion rupees from such sales in the fiscal year ending March 31.
Meanwhile, the government will consider asking corporations, starting with large ones, to meet about one-fourth of their financing needs from the bond market, he said. Further, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management will come up with more exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, in fiscal 2018-2019, including debt ETF, after successfully raising 145 billion rupees through the launch of Bharat-22 ETF in November 2017.
Bharat-22 ETF tracks the S&P BSE Bharat 22 Index, which comprises select companies from the central public sector enterprises universe, stakes held under the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India and state-run banks.
As of Jan 31, US$1 was equivalent to 63.64 Indian rupees.
