The bill, cleared by the finance ministry and awaiting clearance in Parliament, amends Section 35 of the Insurance Act to allow a non-insurance company to merge into an insurance company with Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India’s approval.
“In our case, the company we plan to merge with is only a holding entity without an operating balance sheet, so we don’t foresee any issues,” said Prashant Tripathy, MD and CEO, Axis Max Life in an exclusive interaction with ET.
Once enacted, the NCLT-led merger process is expected to take 8 to 12 months, including regulatory clearance, a source said.
The insurance regulator formed the Dinesh Khara Committee to draft rules on the amendments, and the committee has also recommended that any proposed merger should proceed only with explicit regulatory approval.
The need for amendment arose with Shriram Group’s bid to merge its insurance business with its non-insurance holding company. It exposed a legal grey area the government is now moving to address with this amendment. Under the current Insurance Act, mergers are explicitly allowed only between insurers, leaving combinations with non-insurance firms open to interpretation.