Warburg's SBI Gen bet set to double

PE firm looks to exit investment with a $350 mn cheque

- Ranjani Raghavan & Sneha Shah

Global private equity firm Warburg Pincus is looking to sell its 10% stake in SBI General Insurance in a deal expected to fetch it more than double the value of its six-year-old investment, two people with knowledge of the development said.

The sale is likely to earn the US-based Warburg Pincus about $350 million, they said.

Warburg Pincus and Premji Invest, the family office of Wipro Ltd's founder Azim Premji, bought a 26% stake in SBI General Insurance for $432.38 million in 2019, valuing the insurer at $1.66 billion. They had acquired the stake from Insurance Australia Group Ltd, which had formed SBI General Insurance as a joint venture with State Bank of India (SBI) in 2010.

"The investor has been around for more than six years and now they are looking to exit," said one of the persons cited above. "(SBI General Insurance) plans an IPO later next year and Warburg is looking to exit via a stake sale before that."