Max New York Life Insurance Company Ltd is in no ‘rush' to go for an initial public offer (IPO), according to its Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Mr Rajesh Sud.
“While the option to go for an IPO is important, we will take a call on it at an appropriate time as we are sufficiently capitalised as of now,” Mr Sud told Business Line here.
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) recently released guidelines for insurance companies preferring to go public, which state that insurers who had completed ten years of operations were eligible. Max New York Life is one among the four insurers which fulfils this eligibility criterion.
“At present, our capital is at Rs 1,976 crore, with a 400 per cent solvency ratio. We have more than sufficient funds to meet the requirement for growth,” Mr Sud said.
However, Max New York Life is better prepared for IPOs than many other insurers in terms of valuations.
“A lot of work has been done on valuations. We have already been adopting the embedded valuation method, as required, for the last couple of years,” he said.
The focus for the company now would be on sustaining and building growth. During the last six months, when the private life insurance industry was down by 40 per cent, Max New York was able to grow, he claimed.
Efforts were on to increase renewal premium, and building a team of well-trained, high-quality agents, he said.
During the last financial year Max New York Life posted a net profit of Rs 283 crore, an over six-fold increase compared to the previous year.