Sri Lanka Insurance to split firm before listing

Aug 03, 2011 (LBO) - State-run Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation will split its general and life businesses as required by the sector regulator, before a public listing, chief executive Mohan de Alwis said. The composite firm earned gross written premiums of 15.

2 billion rupees up from 13.54 billion rupees a year earlier.

In 2010 Sri Lanka Insurance made profits of 13.

2 billion rupees boosted by 22 billion rupees in investment income.

The firm had assets of 99 billion rupees by December 2010, which is 40 percent of industry assets according to regulator number, De Alwis said. "We are making our plans. IBSL (Insurance Board of Sri Lanka) our regulator has also stipulated that listing is a must," de Alwis said.

"But we cannot also list without splitting the two companies.

De Alwis said the regulator has given four years for insurance firms to split and five years to list.

He could not put a time frame for a possible listing.

"It is in our interest to make these changes very quickly because we are looking at expansions," he said.