The Finance Ministry approved and waiting for the approval in Parliament, amends Section 35 of the Insurance Act to allow a non-settle company to merge with the insurance regulator and India’s approval with the Development Authority of Development Authority.
“In our case, the company with which we are planning to merge is only a holding unit without an operating balance sheet, so we do not remove any issue,” said Axis Max Life, Prashant Tripathy, MD and CEO, Axis Max Life in a special conversation with ET.
Once implemented, the NCLT-Left merger process is expected to take 8 to 12 months, including regulatory withdrawal, a source said.
The insurance regulator formed the Dinesh Khara Samiti to draft the rules on the amendment, and the committee has also recommended that any proposed merger should proceed with only clear regulatory approval.
The need for amendment was born to merge its insurance business with its non-point holding company with the bid of Shri Ram Group. This highlighted a legal gray sector that the government is now moving forward to address with this amendment. Under the current Insurance Act, the merger is only allowed among the insurers, opening for interpretation except for combination with non-settlement firms.