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Srini Raju is MetLife ally -- `Ramalinga Raju not involved'

Our Bureau

CHENNAI, July 29

WITH reference to the report on MetLife insurance published in Business Line on July 29 quoting Mr N. Rangachary, Chairman, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), Mr Venkatesh Mysore, Managing Director, MetLife India Insurance Co Ltd, cl arifies that it is Mr Srini Raju, promoter of i-Labs who is picking up a stake in the insurance venture and not Mr Ramalinga Raju of the Hyderabad-based Satyam group as mentioned.

Mr Venkatesh told Business Line that Mr Srini Raju will hold a nine per cent stake in the company through a holding company, Chintalapati Holdings Pvt Ltd. Mr Srini Raju is in no way connected to the Satyam group, according to Mr Venkatesh.

The other shareholders in the company are: MetLife of the US - 26 per cent; Jammu & Kashmir Bank - 25 per cent; M. Pallonji Group - 31 per cent; Indian Syntans Pvt Ltd of Chennai - five per cent; Elpro International of Pune - two per cent; and BDDPL of K olkata - two per cent.

Indian Syntans was originally into leather chemicals and is now mainly an investment company. It has stakes in IPCL, Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd and recently picked up over five per cent stake in Bayer India Ltd. It is a closely held company with a majority of the shares held by its Managing Director, Mr N. Narayanan, and his family.

The Pune-based Elpro is basically into electrical engineering products and has launched an e-commerce division. This e-commerce division has launched an insurance portal - firstpolicy.com - which plans to be an e-broker of insurance products, according t o Mr Venkatesh.

The Kolkata-based BDDPL is into real estate development.

To a question, Mr Venkatesh said the initial capitalisation of MetLife India would be Rs 110 crore. It was in the process of capitalising the company and hoped to shortly secure IRDA's approval.

The company, he said, would have a nine-member board comprising three from MetLife, two each from Jammu & Kashmir Bank and the M. Pallonji Group, besides two independent directors. The independent directors would be decided at the next board meeting of t he company. MetLife India would be headquartered in Bangalore.