* Premji Invest to buy 4 pct, Temasek to take 2 pct
* Deals value ICICI Pru Life at 325 bln rupees
* Indian insurers seen raising PE money ahead of IPOs
(Adds details, context)
MUMBAI, Nov 16 (Reuters) - ICICI Bank ICBK.NS , India's
biggest private sector lender by assets, will sell a 6 percent
stake in its life insurance joint venture in two separate deals
worth a combined $296 million to billionaire Azim Premji and
Singapore state investor Temasek.
India's Premji Invest and its affiliates are buying 4
percent of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co Ltd, the biggest
Indian private sector life insurer, valuing the insurance
business at 325 billion rupees($4.9 billion), ICICI Bank said in
a statement on Monday.
A unit of Temasek TEM.UL will buy a 2 percent stake in the
life insurance business that is 26 percent owned by Britain's
Prudential Plc PRU.L . The deals will reduce ICICI Bank's stake
in the life insurance company to 68 percent.
India earlier this year allowed higher foreign ownership in
the $50 billion insurance sector that has been starved of
capital.
While that opened the door for ICICI Prudential Life and its
closest rival HDFC Standard Life (L:SL) Insurance Co. Ltd to go public,
bankers and executives have said the companies will first seek
private equity investments ahead of possible initial public
offerings.
Last year in December, Azim Premji Trust agreed to buy 0.95
percent of HDFC Standard Life Insurance. Premji is the
third-richest Indian according to Forbes rankings.
ICICI Bank also in October agreed to sell a 9 percent stake
in its general insurance joint venture to partner Fairfax
Financial Holdings Ltd FFH.TO .
($1 = 65.9975 Indian rupees)