ICICI Bank to dilute stake in ICICI Lombard General Insurance

During the fiscal year 2014-15, ICICI Lombard had reported profit of Rs 536 crore up from Rs 511 crore in the previous year.

The bank said, "The board of directors of ICICI Bank, (Q,N,C,F)* at its meeting held today, have approved the sale of 9% shareholding in ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company to its joint venture partner, Fairfax Financial Holdings". Intra-day, it climbed 3 per cent to Rs 279.60.

It registered an overall credit growth of 17 per cent during the quarter, helped by a 25 per cent surge in retail advances.

Shares closed at Rs 277 on the BSE. Excluding restructured advances, fresh slippages have fallen to Rs 1,311 crore from Rs 1,380 crore in the June quarter.

New Delhi: ICICI Bank has more than halved its equity investment in the two arms in Canada and the United Kingdom to 5.2 per cent at the end of September quarter from 11 per cent as of March 2010.

The gross NPAs rose to 3.77 per cent from 3.12 per cent a year ago and from 3.68 per cent in Q1.

This deal which is subject to various necessary approvals values the company at Rs 17,225 crore ($2.6 billion), according to a stock market disclosure. Responding to a query on whether the bank would now look at diluting its stake in ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Kochhar said, "We have continuously said that we will look at monetizing and that approach stays". Non-interest income increased 10 per cent to Rs 3,007 crore.

Standard Life, had in August 2015, announced plans to buy 9% additional stake in its Indian insurance venture HDFC Life to raise its ownership to 35%, valuing HDFC Life at Rs 18,951.4 crore.