IRDAI approves True North’s stake purchase in Max Bupa Health Insurance from Max India

Max India Limited, a part of the USD 3.2 billion multi-business corporate Max Group, today announced that the Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has approved divestment of its 51% stake in Max Bupa Health Insurance Company Pvt. Ltd. (Max Bupa), to the leading Private Equity firm True North . The all-cash transaction announced in February 2019 valued Max Bupa at an enterprise value of Rs 1001 crore. Bupa, the existing joint venture partner in Max Bupa, remains committed to the joint venture and will continue to play an active role as before through its Board positions and knowledge-exchange initiatives. 

Post IRDAI approval, the transaction is now expected to be concluded within the next few weeks. All existing customer policies will continue unimpacted and all customer support channels will remain unchanged. 

True North is an active investor in Indian assets. It has built deep knowledge and skills in the Indian market, investing in more than 50 Indian businesses over the last 20 years through its 6 investment funds with a combined corpus of over USD 2.9 billion. Over the years, True North has made productive investments across the financial services and healthcare sector, to the tune of Rs. 7,300 crores.

Commenting on the transaction, Mohit Talwar, Vice President, Max Group and MD, Max India, said, “The transaction will lead to a substantial cash inflow for Max India. As a part of our portfolio rebalancing exercise, we intend to utilize part of the proceeds to invest in both existing and new business opportunities. We are confident that Max Bupa will continue to perform well under True North, ably supported by the founding JV partner Bupa.”

Speaking on the development Maninder Singh Juneja, Partner, True North said, “We are delighted to receive the approval from the IRDAI. Along with our partner Bupa – global leaders in healthcare insurance, we look forward to building the country’s most trusted and customer centric health insurance company. Our top priority is to continue to provide exceptional services to all Max Bupa customers, with the help of its employees and stakeholders.”

Reaffirming its commitment to Max Bupa, David Fletcher, Chief Risk Officer for Bupa and Vice-Chairman of Max Bupa, said, “We are pleased to have received IRDAI approval to transition the controlling stake of Max Bupa from Max India to True North. Bupa is committed to the Indian health insurance market and sees exciting opportunities for accelerated growth over the coming years. We look forward to working with our new partner True North to grow the Max Bupa business.”

The process of conclusion of Max Bupa’s divestment will run in parallel and independent of the composite transaction involving demerger of Max India and the merger of Max Healthcare and Radiant-KKR.

About Max Bupa

Max Bupa, a leading standalone health insurance provider in India, is a 51:49 joint venture between Max India Limited, a multi-business corporate in the business of life and care and the Bupa Group, an international healthcare company with 16.7 million health insurance customers and healthcare services to 15 million people in clinics, hospitals and dental centres globally. In FY2019, the company reported Gross Written Premium of Rs. 947 Crore - an increase of 26%. Focusing primarily on the Business to Customer segment, the company is an innovation leader with many firsts to its credit, including its digitally enabled comprehensive wellness cum health insurance product GoActive. It has a customer base of nearly 2.5 million people, offering individual and family-oriented health insurance policies across all age groups through its 31,000+ agents and 11 bank relationships. Max Bupa operates in the high potential retail health insurance space which is expected to grow to INR 630 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 22%.

About True North

True North was established in 1999 with a focus on investing in and transforming mid-sized profitable businesses into world-class industry leaders, built on the strong foundation of True North Values which are embodied within the principles of ‘The Right Way’. True North has built deep knowledge and skills in the Indian markets and has successfully launched six separate investment funds with a combined corpus of over US$ 2.9 billion including co-investments. True North’s insights and understanding of India has been sharpened over the last 20 years by investing in more than 50 Indian businesses. It has successfully guided these companies in making the transition into well-established and large businesses that are valuable, enduring and socially responsible.