KKR invests in India's Max Financial Services

According to a statement, the firm bought the stake from a group of promoters including the Analjit Singh, chairman emeritus of Max Group. Though financial details of the transaction were not disclosed, a market filing shows a 10% stake in the company being sold by a group including Singh for INR358 per share, for a total value of INR9.5 billion ($139 million).

Max Group recently split its various businesses into three companies. Max Financial Services is the new name of the conglomerate's former Max India division, and holds a 72% stake in Max Life. The other two entities control the group's healthcare verticals and its manufacturing subsidiaries.

India's insurance sector has seen considerable interest from international investors over the last year, in the wake of regulatory changes that raised the maximum allowable level of foreign ownership. In October Japan's Nippon Life announced it would raise its stake in Reliance Life Insurance to 49%, the new maximum; at the same time it agreed to become a co-sponsor of Reliance Capital Asset Management.

November brought two more transactions. First Canada-based Fairfax Financial Holdings raised its stake in ICICI Lombard General Insurance by 9%, to 35%. Then Singapore-based Temasek Holdings, along with India's PremjiInvest, agreed to pay INR19.5 billion for a 6% stake in ICICI Prudential, ICICI Bank's life insurance division.

KKR's investment came from its second pan-Asia fund, which closed in 2013 at $6 billion, still the largest private equity pool ever raised for the region.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• PIPEs
• Financials
• India
• KKR
• PIPE
• insurance
• Financial Services