Chennai, Aug 18 (IANS): The first stand-alone health insurance company, Star Health & Allied Insurance Company Ltd, will change hands soon will all its existing shareholders exiting in favour of Safecrop Holdings Pvt Ltd, a consortium with WestBridge AIF, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and Madison, the company said.

"The existing management is likely to continue for some more time. Whether the purchase price to be paid up front or on milestone basis is not known," a company official told IANS.

Star Health on its website on Friday announced that Safecrop Holdings, a consortium with WestBridge AIF, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and Madison Capital, has signed definitive agreements with the shareholders of Star Health to purchase their shares.

The existing shareholders of Star Health include Star Health Investments Pvt. Ltd. and funds managed/or advised by ICICI Venture, Tata Capital and Apis Partners.

The transaction is subject to regulatory and certain other approvals, the company said.

However, it was silent on the purchase price.

Declining to share any financial and non-financial details V. Jagannathan, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Star Health told IANS: "I am very happy with the deal."

The health insurer has about 11,000 employees.

He said: "We have started from a humble beginning and have come to this level with an excellent team work. We feel new investors, with their abundance experience and golden touch, will enable the company to scale further heights.

"We are really excited about Star Health, a dominant market leader in the retail health insurance industry. We believe the retail health insurance industry will continue to grow at a healthy pace in the coming decade, driven by increasing penetration," said Sumir Chadha, Co-Founder & Managing Director, WestBridge Capital.

"This aligns well with WestBridge's investing philosophy and long-time horizon. We are highly confident of Star's business model and believe that Star will continue to lead the retail health insurance space."