Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas are advising India's HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co Ltd on its talks to acquire smaller rival Max Life Insurance Co Ltd, which is being counselled by AZB & Partners.
The all-stock deal is expected to create the nation's top private-sector life insurer and kick off consolidation in the $50 billion sector. As part of the deal, Max Life will be merged into parent Max Financial Services, which in turn will merge with HDFC Life, making it a publicly traded company.
HDFC Life is currently the third-biggest private sector life insurer in India, while Max Life is fourth-biggest. The combined entity will have 1 trillion Indian rupees ($15 billion) of assets under management.
Britain's Standard Life Plc owns a stake in HDFC Life, whose biggest shareholder is Indian mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp. Japan's Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. Ltd is Max Financial Services Ltd's joint-venture partner in Max Life, in which India's third-biggest private sector lender Axis Bank also owns a small stake.
The Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas team acting for Standard Life is being led by partners Cyril Shroff and Shishir Vayttaden, while Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas is acting for HDFC. The AZB team advising Max Life includes partners Ajay Bahl, Anil Kasturi and Niladri Maulik.
For HDFC, this will be the second such merger announcement this month. Recently, the firm announced that HDFC Ergo General Insurance will acquire a 100 percent stake in L&T General Insurance Company.
