MUMBAI : Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa's Fairfax on Thursday sold ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd shares worth Rs2,561.5 crore, selling close to half of its stake in the company.

According to data from stock exchanges, FAL Corporation, a subsidiary of Fairfax, sold 22.67 million shares on Thursday at a price of Rs1,129.68 per share. Fairfax has sold around half of its stake in ICICI Lombard through this sale. As of 30 June, Fairfax owned a 9.9% stake in the general insurance company.

The stake sale comes after the insurance regulator Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irdai) on 3 September, allowed an exception to Fairfax on the lock-in period of shares held by it in ICICI Lombard.

In September 2017, ICICI Lombard went public in an IPO that valued the company at Rs30,000 crore and saw the company's two sponsors, ICICI Bank Ltd and Fairfax, sell shares worth Rs5,700 crore. The two had set up the insurance firm in 2001. Fairfax had sold a 12% stake through the IPO.

Earlier this month, American private equity firm Warburg Pincus sold its remaining 2.7% stake in general insurer ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd, for Rs1,378 crore (approximately $194.5 million).

Source: Live Mint