ICICI Bank to sell stake in ICICI Pru

ICICI Bank received approval from its board of directors for sale of 2 per cent stake in ICICI Prudential through an offer for sale.

The bank's Board of Directors have agreed for the sale of up to 28,711,100 shares of ICICI Pru constituting 2 per cent stake in one or more tranche through an OFS mechanism. The move will help ICICI Bank raise Rs. 1,180 crore.

Established in 2001, ICICI Prudential Life is among India largest life insurance company with AUM of Rs. 1,395 billion. The insurance company is a joint venture with ICICI Bank holding 54.88 per cent and Prudential Corporation Holdings owing 25.83 per cent stake in ICICI Prudential Insurance Company.

Earlier, the ICICI Pru posted strong results with a 640 bps increase in value of new business (VNB) margin to 16.5 per cent for FY18. However, the insurance company's PAT decreased from Rs. 16.82 billion in FY2017 to Rs. 16.20 billion in FY2018, mainly due to higher new business acquisition cost arising from the business growth.

Meanwhile, at 10:00 hours the stock of ICICI and its subsidiary experience selling pressure, with the stock of ICICI Bank quoting Rs. 289.70 per share, down by 0.38 per cent and ICICI Pru at Rs. 403.35 per share, down by 1.68 per cent on Thursday.