Capital market regulator Sebi has returned the preliminary IPO papers of Fairfax-backed Go Digit General Insurance. The insurance company said on Tuesday that it will refile an amended draft prospectus in due course.

Sebi in an update on the processing status of public offers and rights issue has said that it has returned the draft offer document on January 30.

“The company is in receipt of a letter from Sebi, dated January 30 on its draft prospectus dated August 14, 2022. Pursuant to this letter, the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) has been returned in terms of regulation 5(2) of Sebi (ICDR) Regulations 2018, which exempts rights granted under employee stock option plans to subsist at the time of filing of a DRHP, but does not similarly exempt employee stock appreciation rights,” Go Digit said in a statement.

“The company is currently evaluating amendments to its stock appreciation rights scheme and will refile its DRHP with Sebi in due course,” the statement said.

Go Digit’s draft IPO paper consisted of a fresh issue of equity shares worth Rs 1,250 crore and offer for sale of up to 109,445,561 equity shares by promoter and selling shareholders. At least 75 per cent of the offer was proposed for allocation to qualified institutional buyers.

The insurance company was looking to utilise the proceeds from the fresh issuance to augment capital base, maintain solvency levels and for general corporate purposes.

Healthy growth

The first-year premium of life insurance companies has reached Rs 26,424 crore in January from Rs 21,957 crore in January 2022, recording a growth of 20.3 per cent against a marginal increase of 2.7 percent in January 2022, data from the Life Insurance Council said.

“Given the announcements in the Union budget regarding taxation aspects of returns from annual premium over Rs 5 lakh, life insurance premiums are expected to be aggressively pushed in the last two months of the current fiscal,” a Care Edge report said.