Flipkart former CEO Sachin Bansal acquires DHFL General Insurance for Rs 100 crore

Flipkart co-founder and former CEO Sachin Bansal has reportedly acquired DHFL General Insurance from Wadhawan Group Capital (WGC) for around Rs 100 crore. The deal is seen as a distress sale for Kapil Wadhawan-led financial services group, which used to run the debt-laden DHFL.

WGC is the parent company of crisis-hit Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL), which has been recently admitted for bankruptcy. WGC also owns financial services companies such as Aadhar Housing Finance, Avanse Financial Services, DHFL Pramerica Asset Managers, DHFL Pramerica Life Insurance and DHFL General Insurance.

With this acquisition, Bansal has entered into insurance business. The investment is also seen as part of his strategy to enter into financial services industry. In the recent past, Bansal had done multiple investments in insurance business increase his portfolio of firms in the sector.

Last year, he had acquired a microlender Chaitanya Rural Intermediation Development Services (CRIDS) for Rs 739 crore and also took over as the CEO of the in the Bengaluru-based non-banking finance company (NBFC).

Also Read: Sachin Bansal set to return as CEO with investment in microlender CRIDS

The deal has been done via Navi Technologies, formerly known as BAC Acquisitions which Bansal had founded along with IIT-Delhi batchmate Ankit Agarwal after selling his stake in Flipkart in 2018, reported The Economic Times.

Bansal exited Flipkart last year after US-based retail giant Walmart acquired majority stake in the e-commerce platform. He later sold his 5.5 per cent stake in Flipkart for $1 billion. In February last year, Bansal had invested Rs 650 crore in cab aggregator Ola in his personal capacity as an investor. Among others, he has also invested in NBFC firms Altico Capital India Ltd and IndoStar Capital Finance; scooter-rental start-ups Vogo and Bounce.

Also Read: Flipkart founders Binny, Sachin Bansal to invest Rs 125 crore in IIT-Delhi fund

DHFL, which has a debt of around Rs 40,000 crore to the banks, is the first financial services firm against which insolvency proceedings have been initiated after it defaulted on repayments to the creditors.

By Chitranjan Kumar