After several failed attempts, Max Financial Services of India has laid to rest its proposed merger with HDFC Standard Life Insurance on Monday, citing numerous delays as the problem.
The proposal, which involved Max Life merging with its parent group Max Financial, then later combining its life insurance operations with HDFC Standard Life, was rejected by the Indian insurance regulator due to violation of its guidelines.
Max Financial said in an exchange filing that the agreement between the firms, after hitting yet another standstill, will no longer be extended, reports Reuters.
HDFC Standard Life is a joint venture between Indian financial group HDFC and British insurer Standard Life. Had its merger with its smaller competitor Max Life Insurance been successful, it would’ve created the largest privately-owned life insurer in the market.
According to Max, it decided to terminate the deal due to the extraordinarily long time it was taking for alternative merger structures to be approved by the concerned parties.
Earlier, Max said that it was still hoping the merger would push through, despite talks from the HDFC side that it instead prefers to go for an initial public offering as the negotiation and approval process for the merger was taking too long.
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