Star Health and Allied Insurance is being acquired by ace stock market investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and a consortium of private equity firms WestBridge Capital and Madison Capital. The buying consortium, Safecrop Holdings Pvt. Ltd., will acquire shares from Star Health Investments Pvt. Ltd. and funds managed or advised by ICICI Venture, Tata Capital and Apis Partners.
The deal size of the acquisition was not disclosed, though it is estimated at around Rs 6,500 crore. The transaction is subject to regulatory and certain other approvals.
Sumir Chadha, co-founder and managing director of WestBridge, said, “We believe the retail health insurance industry will continue to grow at a healthy pace in the coming decade, driven by increasing penetration. This aligns well with WestBridge’s investing philosophy and long-time horizon”.
Founded in 2006, Chennai-based Star Health is the largest health insurance company in India with a market share of 10.6% in health insurance across all the general insurance companies as of 31 March 2018. The company provides health insurance, overseas mediclaim and personal accident policies.
