The exact details of the deal has not been disclosed by either parties. UIB Group had a miniority stake in the Indian insurance broker with Indorama SPL Group and Lucas & Mayo Group as majority shareholders
Mumbai: UK based UIB Group, one of the largest privately-owned independent international insurance and reinsurance brokers, has exited Indian market after merging its operations, UIB Insurance Brokers (India) Pvt Ltd, with Edme Insurance Brokers.
UIB Insurance Brokers, set up in 2011, was a leader in energy insurance market and had dealt with re/insurance placements of all large PSU power and energy projects in the country.
The exact details of the deal, between Edme and UIB Insurance Brokers, has not been disclosed by either parties though UIB Group had a miniority stake in the Indian intermediary with Indorama SPL Group and Lucas & Mayo Group as majority shareholders.
Edme Insurance Brokers, funded by Samara Capital, had taken over Aditya Birla Insurance Brokers Limited (ABIBL) in 2024 and will soon venture into some overseas markets like Dubai, Singapore and London, said Sanjay Radhakrishnan, CEO, Edme Insurance Brokers, adding that the company will have a revenue over Rs 850 crore in the current fiscal .
“Edme Insurance Brokers wants to emerge as a specialist broker in the country ”, he said.
After the government allowed 100 per cent FDI insurance broking sector, couple of years ago, a few foreign brokers like Marsh, AON, Gallagher, Howden and Willis, which had minority stakes in Indian joint ventures have bought out their Indian partners with handsome valuations.
However, Indian market has not been able to attract any new foreign re/insurance except one or two after 100 per cent FDI was allowed in the Indian re/insurance broking sector.
Though, the country has over 700 insurance brokers including a few reinsurance brokers, over 90 per cent of business, out of the total Rs 50,000 crore that passes through broking channel, transacted through only top 5-10 brokers.
Analysts say a lot of Indian brokers want to exit by selling their business but they are not getting proper valuations. Besides only private equities have shown interest in buying stakes in Indian insurance brokers.
Recently, Satyajit Tripathy, member,Distribution, IRDAI had said the Indian insurance broking industry is seeing increasing interest from foreign investors and players in the segment should pull up their socks to ensure governance standards are high and business ethics are maintained.
He further cautioned the insurance brokers not to adopt sharp practices to increase valuation, get listed to do business which may in the long run prove detrimental to the whole ecosystem.