South African fund shows interest in Indian insurance
September 7th, 2011 - 7:38 pm ICT by IANSChennai, Sep 7 (IANS) South Africa-based private equity fund LeapFrog Investments wants to invest in Indian insurance companies as well as those serving the insurance sector.
“We are interested in investing in insurance companies - operating in life, non-life and health sectors - as well as in companies serving this sector like information technology (IT), claims processing outfits and others,” Jim Roth, co-founder and partner of the company, told IANS.
The $135 million private equity fund invests in insurance and financial service companies in Africa and Asia that are focused on emerging consumers largely from middle and lower middle class.
He said there are many insurance companies in India without any foreign partners and LeapFrog Investments can bring its insurance expertise to them.
“We cap our investment per company at $30 million. We can be a knowledge partner for the Indian insurers as we have actuaries in our team,” he added on the sidelines of a press meet announcing the fund’s investment in the city-based Shriram Credit Capital Ltd.
“LeapFrog is investing Rs.67 crore (around $15 million) for around 10 percent stake in Shriram Credit Capital. The funds will be deployed in our three group companies operating in the fields of stock broking, financial product distribution and wealth advisory services,” G.S. Sundararajan, managing director, Shriram Capital Ltd. told reporters here Wednesday.
Shriram Capital is the holding company for the financial services (including Shriram Credit Capital) and insurance companies (life and non-life) of the Shriram group.
According to Sundararajan, the newly infused funds will be used to expand the operations of Shriram Insight Share Brokers (stock broking outfit), Shriram Fortune Solutions (financial products distribution company) and Shriram Wealth Management (designers of financial products).
“We will increase the number of Shriram Fortune (revenue Rs.120 crore) branches by 600 to 1,000. The expansion will happen in south (India). Similarly, we will expand the reach of Shriram Insight (revenue Rs.250 crore) by opening new branches in northern and western parts of India,” Sundararajan said.
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- Reliance Capital pact with Nippon in areas beyond insurance - Sep 01, 2011
- Shriram Housing Finance open for outside equity infusion - Aug 10, 2011
- Reliance Life concludes 26 percent stake sale to Nippon for $680mn - Oct 09, 2011
- Shriram Life to tap clients of group companies - Jan 12, 2011
- LeapFrog plans $30 mn investment in Indian insurance companies - Mar 29, 2010
- Shriram group plans insurance ventures in southeast Asia - Jun 16, 2010
- Reliance Life gets central bank nod for stake sale to Nippon - Sep 30, 2011
- Chennai's Shriram Housing aims big in this fiscal - Mar 30, 2012
- Nippon's pact for 26-percent stake in Reliance asset firm - Mar 22, 2012
- Profitability big challenge for Indian insurers: Report - Apr 11, 2011
- Strengthen actuarial departments, says insurance regulator - Dec 23, 2010
- Firewalls needed between banks and insurance firms: Survey - Mar 15, 2012
- Reliance Capital mulling bonus, banking entry: Ambani - Sep 27, 2011
- Reliance Life gets Nippon on board for $680 million - Mar 14, 2011
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