India’s largest private sector lender ICICI Bank has sold a 3.96% stake in ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd for around Rs 2,250 crore ($295 million), in a bid to fortify its balance sheet.
The lender now holds 51.9% stake in the insurer, it stated during a stock-exchange filing on Friday. However, it did not reveal the name of the buyers.
The bank gave away the shares at an average price of Rs 1,250 each. Shares of ICICI Lombard were trading 0.6% down at Rs 1,268.95 apiece
ICICI Lombard became operational in 2001, as an alliance between ICICI Bank and India-born Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.
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Fairfax first divested its stakes in the insurer in 2017 and fully exited in 2019.
