Dlf - koolfriend4u
DLF, the country’s largest real estate company, is looking to exit its life
insurance joint venture with the US-based Prudential
Financial as it continues to sell
non-core businesses that demand fund infusion.
The company, which is still to recover from the realty crash last year, is now scouting for a potential buyer for its 74% stake in DLF Pramerica Life Insurance, in what could be the first deal in India’s fledgling insurance industry, at least two persons familiar with the matter told ET.
The first person, a senior executive in the insurance industry, said DLF wants to exit insurance business it entered in 2007 when the realty boom was at its peak, as it is hesitant to spend more money on any business that is not its core area of operation.
DLF-Pramerica, which currently has a capital base of Rs 130 crore, is expecting fresh infusion of Rs 150-200 crore from its parents this fiscal to increase its penetration in the market.
A senior DLF executive confirmed that the company didn’t intend to be a long-term player in the insurance business and would exit when it gets an opportunity. He, however, added that DLF hasn’t yet appointed any merchant banker for the same. A DLF spokesman, however, denied the report. “It is absolutely wrong information, we don’t have any plan to exit,” he said.
The two executives could not confirm if DLF would also exit its asset management joint venture with Prudential Financial where the foreign partner holds a majority 61% stake. They also refused to talk about potential suitors and the valuation the unlisted firm is likely to attract.
With none of the 22 insurance companies in the country listed on the market and the
industry having not seen any M&A deal so far, no analyst was willing to make a guess on the likely deal size. Since the onset of the downturn in the realty sector, DLF has been looking at retreating from all its non-core businesses. It is exiting from wind power business, two township projects at Dankuni in West Bengal and Bidadi in Karnataka and a convention centre project in Delhi.
The company, which reported a 79% decline in profit and 55% decline in sales for the June quarter, has also put on the block many of its land parcels, including its hotel projects. During the real estate boom years of 2004-07, DLF ventured into many unrelated sectors just like several other cash-rich developers.
The company tied up with several international brands like Giorgio Armani, Salvatore Ferragamo and Dolce & Gabbana to start retail operations. It tied up with Hyderabad-based Gayatri Projects to foray into road development.
It rolled out a hotel plan, but rolled it back rapidly after downturn hurt the realty sector.
DLF was one of the many realtors including Unitech, Parsvnath and Jaypee that had applied for telecom licences in 2007. Only Unitech received the licence.
Most realtors who went on a diversification spree then are now looking to repay their debt through cash generated by asset sale. It’s natural for DLF to want to exit insurance, which is a capital-intensive business with huge fund requirements. Companies in the sector are injecting capital annually to deal with cut-throat competition.
Its partner may not be expecting it though. In an earlier interaction with ET, Timothy Feige, co-president, international insurance business of Prudential Financial, said: “We are happy with DLF as our partner and together we are looking to expand our operations in India.” In the first quarter of the current fiscal, DLF Pramerica recorded Rs 4.34 crore in terms of sale of life insurance products.
The firm has some 600 employees and 450 agents. It has offices in Haryana, Punjab and the National Capital Region (NCR).
The beginning to this fiscal has not been very exciting for the life insurance industry. “Premium collection from new products has fallen in the past few months. For insurers, especially the newer ones, it’s difficult to sustain as the fund requirement in the sector is huge,” said an executive of a Delhi-based private insurer, on condition of anonymity.
Overall growth in the life insurance industry remained almost flat, with private insurers reporting a decline of 20% in the category. They clocked Rs 5,427 crore during the first three months of the fiscal while the figure was much higher at Rs 6,795 crore last year.
Currently, there are currently 22 life insurance firms operating in India and as per industry estimates, the life category constitutes only around 4% of the total GDP in the country. The FDI limit in the insurance space for foreign players is capped at 26%, but the government is planning to raise it to 49%.