Insurance giant Swiss Re is reportedly in talks with IPO-bound Paytm to join the board of its insurance business.
Swiss Re is planning to invest around $100m to acquire a 20-25% stake in the Indian payment startup, Economic Times reported citing sources.
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Last July, Paytm announced the acquisition of private sector general insurance company Raheja QBE.
Raheja QBE is a joint venture between Prism Johnson and Australian insurer QBE Insurance Group.
Paytm agreed to buy 51% of the paid-up equity share capital of Raheja QBE from Prism Johnson along with the remaining 49% stake held by QBE Australia.
Through the partnership with Swiss Re, Paytm aims to gain regulatory clearance for Raheja QBE’s acquisition, which will formalise its insurance business.
“Bringing on board a strategic partner at this point will add heft with the regulators. Paytm lacks insurance expertise, which Swiss RE aims to provide,” an official told the publication.
Apart from Raheja QBE’s acquisition, Paytm has also established ventures such as Paytm Life insurance and Paytm General Insurance to strengthen its presence in the insurance sector.
In 2019, it was reported that Paytm was in talks to acquire insurance marketplace Coverfox for $120m. However, the deal did not go through.
It had also joined forces with ICICI Lombard to distribute various types of insurance solutions.
In other Indian insurance industry news, earlier this week, American insurer MetLife announced plans to increase its stake in the Indian joint venture (JV) PNB MetLife India Insurance Company (PNB MetLife).
