Piramal Enterprises Not Eligible To Buy Reliance Nippon Life Due To IRDAI Restrictions
As per the IRDAI guidelines, a promoter cannot have a stake in more than one insurance company in the same segment.
Piramal Enterprises Ltd. is not fit to acquire Reliance Nippon Life Insurance, which is on the block as part of the resolution process of debt-ridden Reliance Capital, due to Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority restrictions.
Piramal Enterprises is one of the 54 prospective resolution applicants for Reliance Capital Ltd and its subsidiaries.
As per the IRDAI guidelines, a promoter cannot have a stake in more than one insurance company in the same segment.
As per the provisions, an investor individually cannot hold more than 10 per cent and jointly could not hold more than 25% paid-up equity share capital of the insurance company.
Going by this provision of the regulator, Piramal Enterprises may not be 'fit and proper' to acquire Reliance Nippon Life Insurance, sources said, adding it can, however, apply for other than insurance businesses of Reliance Capital.
Piramal Enterprises is a promoter of the Pramerica Life Insurance Company while it has an indirect investment of 20 per cent in Shriram Capital, which is the holding company of Shriram Life Insurance Company with a 74.56% stake.
The bidders had two options - either they could bid for the entire RCL or any one or more than one of the subsidiaries of Reliance Capital. Reliance Capital's subsidiaries include Reliance General Insurance, Reliance Nippon Life Insurance, Reliance Securities, Reliance Asset Reconstruction Company, Reliance Home Finance and Reliance Commercial Finance.
The Reserve Bank of India had on November 29 last year superseded the board of Reliance Capital Ltd in view of payment defaults and serious governance issues. It appointed Nageswara Rao Y as the administrator in relation to the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process of the company.
This is the third large non-banking financial company against which the central bank has initiated bankruptcy proceedings under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code recently.
The other two were Srei Group NBFC and Dewan Housing Finance Corporation.
The RBI subsequently filed an application for initiation of CIRP against the company at the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal.
In February this year, the RBI-appointed administrator invited expressions of interest for the sale of Reliance Capital.