The proposed National Stock Exchange IPO could unlock nearly ₹12,000 crore for three PSU insurers by enabling them to monetise long-held stakes.
This capital boost may significantly improve their weak solvency ratios, helping them meet regulatory requirements and stabilise balance sheets.
With improved solvency, these insurers could expand underwriting capacity and reduce reliance on government capital support.
Three state-owned general insurers sitting on sizeable stakes in the National Stock Exchange (NSE) could find unexpected relief from the bourse's long-awaited listing, the Economic Times reported.
National Insurance Company, Oriental Insurance Company and United India Insurance Company together hold around 75 million NSE shares, a position that has remained largely dormant in value due to the exchange's unlisted status.
1 April 2026
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A Windfall in Waiting
Should NSE go public at even a conservative price of ₹1,500 per share, the combined value of these holdings would clock in at ₹11,500–12,000 crore. Spread across the three companies, that works out to roughly ₹4,500 crore each, a capital that could lift their solvency ratios by close to 100 basis points, mirroring the effect of a direct government infusion of equivalent size.
The urgency is hard to overstate. All three insurers are not just below the regulatory solvency threshold of 1.5 times the required margin, they are deep in negative territory. As of March 2025, Oriental Insurance was the worst placed at -1.03, followed by National Insurance at -0.67 and United India Insurance at -0.65. The trajectory has been consistently downward; in June 2024, National Insurance stood at -0.46 and United India at -0.73.
The contrast with listed peer New India Assurance is stark, the company has held a solvency ratio of around 1.9, well above what regulators require.
The Root of the Problem
Weak underwriting and persistent losses, especially when gains from fair value changes are stripped out, have driven this deterioration. Rating agency ICRA has previously estimated that the three companies may collectively need between ₹15,200 crore and ₹17,000 crore to restore solvency to the mandated level. Separately, reports suggest the government is weighing a capital infusion of up to ₹5,000 crore into the trio.
An NSE listing would not solve everything, but it would move the needle. Once listed, the exchange's shares can be marked to market value rather than the subdued valuations applied to unlisted securities, effectively unlocking capital that already exists on these insurers' books without requiring fresh public money.
The NSE IPO, estimated to mobilise over ₹20,000 crore, is expected to be structured entirely as an offer-for-sale, meaning existing investors will offload shares rather than the exchange raising new equity.
