New Delhi, Dec 4 (IANS): Indian's insurance regulator has approved divestment of 51 per cent stake of Max India in Max Bupa Health Insurance Company to private equity firm True North.

Max India, a part of the $3.2 billion multi-business corporate Max Group said that Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has approved divestment of its stake in Max Bupa to True North.

"The all-cash transaction announced in February 2019 valued Max Bupa at an enterprise value of Rs 1,001 crore. Bupa, the existing joint venture partner in Max Bupa, remains committed to the joint venture and will continue to play an active role as before through its Board positions and knowledge-exchange initiatives," the company said in a statement.

"Post IRDAI approval, the transaction is now expected to be concluded within the next few weeks. All existing customer policies will continue unimpacted and all customer support channels will remain unchanged."

According to the company, True North is an active investor in Indian assets and has invested in more than 50 Indian businesses over the last 20 years through its six investment funds with a combined corpus of over $2.9 billion.

Over the years, True North has made productive investments across the financial services and healthcare sector, to the tune of Rs 7,300 crores, the company said.

Commenting on the transaction, Mohit Talwar, Vice President, Max Group and MD, Max India said: "The transaction will lead to a substantial cash inflow for Max India. As a part of our portfolio rebalancing exercise, we intend to utilise part of the proceeds to invest in both existing and new business opportunities."

In addition, the company said that process of conclusion of Max Bupa's divestment will run in parallel and independent of the composite transaction involving demerger of Max India and the merger of Max Healthcare and Radiant-KKR.