Jio Financial Services Eyes Insurance Partnership With Allianz

Jio Financial Services (JFS) is reportedly in discussions with German financial services company Allianz SE to forge insurance partnerships. 

Allianz, which currently has two joint ventures in India with Bajaj Finserv, has held early discussions with JFS to set up general insurance and life insurance ventures, Bloomberg reported. 

It added that Allianz is seeking to dissolve its existing joint ventures (JV) with Bajaj Finserv in India due to disagreements regarding the strategic direction of the partnership.

Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co and Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Co are the two JVs between the companies in India. Allianz holds 26% stake in both the companies.

Notably, earlier this week, Bajaj said in a statement, “Allianz has indicated to Bajaj that given its strategic priorities, it is actively considering an exit from the life and general insurance joint ventures.”

The Bloomberg report said that the talks between JFS and Allianz are in initial stages and they might decide to not go ahead with the plans.

This comes days after a report said JFS is mulling setting up a private credit JV with BlackRock. The companies already have an asset management JV under the brand name Jio BlackRock, which was launched in 2023.

Recently, the JV received in-principle approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to set up a mutual funds business. 

In April this year, JFS and BlackRock also teamed up to launch wealth management and stock broking ventures in India.

JFS, which was carved out from Reliance Industries and made public debut in August last year, is on an expansion spree.

In September this year, the company launched products like loan against property, loan on securities, and term life insurance.

The company, as of September 2024, had a direct-to-customer (D2C) product portfolio of 24 insurance plans across four product categories – auto, two-wheeler, health and life.

JFS reported a 3.13% rise in its consolidated net profit to INR 689.07 Cr in the June-September quarter (Q2) of the financial year 2024-25 (FY25) from INR 668.18 Cr in the year-ago quarter. 

Shares of JFS ended today’s trading session 0.13% higher at INR 314.45 on the BSE.