NEW DELHI: Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) is looking to
buy out the Asian insurance business of AIG. If it goes through, the
deal — which would exclude AIG's Indian businesses — would make
Reliance South-East Asia's largest life insurer. It could well be the
second-largest overseas buyout by an Indian firm. ADAG is likely to be
one of several bidders looking to buy these AIG businesses.
Sources told ET that the asking price for American International
Assurance Company (AIA), AIG's wholly-owned arm, has been pegged at
around $10 billion. Sources said Citibank, acting on behalf of AIA,
has approached ADAG to buy out AIA. AIA is AIG's flagship life
insurance company for South-East Asia and is the largest life insurer
in the region with businesses across South East Asia.
Last month, the US nationalised AIG which was on the brink of collapse
with an $85-billion loan and restructured its top management. This was
followed by another $38 billion last week. Now, the insurance giant is
80%-owned by the US government.
Last year, Tata Steel had acquired Anglo-Dutch steel major Corus for
$12 billion and Hindalco had acquired Novelis for around $7 billion.
In comparison, Indian financial services firms have been rather
conservative in their international acquisitions.
In most geographies, AIG operates as AIA while in some markets like
Australia and New Zealand, it functions as AIG.
When contacted, the R-ADAG spokesperson declined to comment. Sources,
however, told ET that the group is interested in the deal, given AIA's
dominance in the region.
The Indian group has been spreading its financial services businesses
overseas through Reliance Money, the retail brokerage and distribution
arm of Reliance Capital. The company recently acquired 15% stake in
Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange, which came on the back of a partnership
with local firm Goldride Securities, for distributing financial
products and services.
Reliance Money, which is looking to generate half of its revenue from
abroad by 2013, is actively expanding operations in the Middle East.
Top group executives are currently evaluating options and likely to
take a decision soon. "Chances of a deal are 50:50. R-ADAG could be
looking at a modest valuation, in the $5-6 billion range. The deal is
still at a nascent stage, and there's no certainty that it will go
through," said a source.
R-ADAG already has a life insurance venture in India — Reliance Life
Insurance — which is an associate company of Reliance Capital, the
flagship financial services firm of the group, which has interests in
asset management, stock broking, insurance, proprietary investments,
private equity and other activities in financial services.
In India, AIG has a 24:76 life insurance joint venture with the Tatas.
This business is unlikely to be part of the proposed deal with
Reliance-ADAG, as the Tatas may have a right of first refusal in any
sale by AIG.
AIG, which had assets in excess of $1 trillion in 2007, has been
looking to sell parts of its businesses and assets and focus on the
core general insurance business. AIG's move to sell AIA is at variance
with its earlier statement to retain a continuing ownership interest
in its foreign life insurance operations.
Life insurance and retirement services business is the largest revenue
generator for AIG. Out of the total revenues of $110 billion in 2007,
life insurance generated $53.6 billion and general insurance $51.7
billion. Asset management and other financial services are
comparatively smaller business areas of AIG globally.
In 2007, AIG generated $92.7 billion worth of aggregate business,
which includes premium, deposits and other considerations from life
insurance and retirement services businesses. Out of this, $67.5
billion came from operations outside the US. Besides AIA, this also
represents businesses from other units of AIG spreading across Europe,
Latin America and Japan.
No comments:
Post a Comment