General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re) is the leader in the Indian reinsurance market. It leads many of the domestic companies' treaty programmes and facultative placements. Internationally, GIC Re is an effective reinsurance partner for the Afro-Asian region, leading the reinsurance programmes of several insurance companies in the Middle East and North Africa and SAARC countries. It has offices in London, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and a representative office in Moscow. The Corporation provides reinsurance across many key business lines including property, motor, agriculture, marine, engineering, aviation, health, liability.
GIC Re was a wholly-owned company of Government of India until its Initial Public Offer (IPO) in October 2017. GIC Re was listed on the bourses on 25 October 2017. The IPO was a combination of a fresh issue of 1.75-crore shares totaling up to Rs 1568.6 crore at the upper price band and offer for sale of 10.75-crore shares by Union government totaling up to Rs 9804 crore at the upper price band of Rs 912 per share. After the IPO, Government of India's holding in GIC Re declined to 85.78%.
General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC) was incorporated at Mumbai on November 22, 1972 as a Private Limited Company. The Corporation was converted into a Public Limited Company with effect from March 7, 2016. The Corporation is registered with IRDAI for carrying on reinsurance business pursuant to the registration certificate dated April 2, 2001.
GIC was formed for the purpose of superintending, controlling and carrying on the business of general insurance. As soon as GIC was formed, Government of India (GoI) transferred all the shares it held of the general insurance companies to GIC. Simultaneously, the nationalised undertakings were transferred to Indian insurance companies. After a process of mergers among Indian insurance companies, the following four companies (National Insurance Company Limited, The New India Assurance Company Limited, The Oriental Insurance Company Limited and United India Insurance Company Limited) were left as fully owned subsidiary companies of GIC.
In November 2000, GIC was renotified as the Indian Reinsurer and through administrative instruction, its supervisory role over the four subsidiaries was ended. With the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Act 2002 (40 of 2002) coming into force from March 21, 2003; GIC ceased to be a holding company of its subsidiaries. The ownership of the four erstwhile subsidiary companies and also of the General Insurance Corporation of India was vested with Government of India.
On 1 April 2002, GIC was appointed as a Manager to the Terrorism Insurance Pool.
On 5 September 2013, GIC's joint venture reinsurance company in Bhutan-GIC Bhutan Re Limited became operational. On 19 September 2013, GIC was appointed as Managers of FAIR NATCAT Reinsurance Pool at Beijing, China.
On 11 August 2014, GIC Re South Africa Limited, the wholly owned subsidiary of GIC Re was established in South Africa.
GIC Re along with several other Indian insurance companies launched the India Nuclear Insurance Pool (INIP) with a capacity of Rs 1500 crore on 12 June 2015 to provide insurance to cover the liability as prescribed under Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage (CLND) Act 2010. The INIP will address liability related concerns of suppliers under the CLND Act 2010 and will pave the way for Indian as well as foreign suppliers to participate in the Indian Nuclear Power Projects.
On 30th January 2020, GIC Perestrakhovanie LLC (GIC Re's 100% subsidiary) received its reinsurance operations license from Central Bank of Russia.
GIC Moscow Representative office was upgraded into a wholly owned subsidiary named as GIC Perestrakhovanie LLC, which started its operations from August 2020.