Max India, whose plans to merge its insurance business with HDFC Life have encountered several obstacles, is still hoping to come up with a new workable structure in the next 12 days, even after its partner announced that it is planning to sell its shares in an initial public offering (IPO) instead. “We are working out a new structure and I am hopeful and optimistic that the merger will go through,” Mohit Talwar, managing director at Max Financial Services, told the Economic Times. “We are in a standstill agreement until the end of the month.” The merger, first proposed in August, was rejected by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), as one of the complicated merger process’s steps violated a rule prohibiting combining an insurance company and a non-insurance company. The deadline for the merger’s completion was extended twice, first to June 2017 followed by July 2017 – and recently, it was reported that HDFC is abandoning the merger plan and will instead hold an IPO. Talwar commented on HDFC’s IPO plans, describing it as “an enabling resolution to do an IPO, and it is no different from what they have said while going to the press a few weeks ago.”


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