$2 mn Buffett dinner may be free for Irda chief J Hari Naray

Mumbai . A charity dinner with the Oracle of Omaha Warren Buffett costs $2.6 million, but if Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority Chairman J Hari Narayan is charitable with an appointment, his could be for free.

The billionaire investor who is visiting India soon to propagate his ‘Giving Pledge’ charity cause, has sought a meeting with the insurance chief, for an unknown agenda. His Berkshire Hathaway runs many insurance and reinsurance companies across the globe.

“Warren Buffett has sought time for a meeting with the chairman on his visit to India,” said an Irda official, who did not want to be identified. Kara Raiguel, director, Berkshire India , could not be reached for comment.

Eighty-year-old Buffett, who is visiting India for the first time, could provide some insights into the insurance industry with which he has been associated with for decades in different countries, during his meeting with Narayan, if granted, industry executives say.

Although the regulator may not be able to commit on the legislation about raising foreign direct investment in insurance from 26%, it may still figure in the discussions.

Global insurers such as Prudential, Aviva and New York Life have been lobbying with the government for years to raise the FDI cap to at least 49%, but in vain. Although the Manmohan Singh government has agreed in principle, it has failed to implement it due to political constraints.

Buffett, who said “our elephant gun has been reloaded, and my trigger finger is itchy” for acquisitions, operates in India as a corporate agent to sell general insurance products in venture with Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company. It plans to expand the distribution to health, life and travel cover if the market is receptive. Besides insurance, reinsurance is another area of interest for Buffett.

So far, overseas reinsurers have not entered India and are operating only through liaison offices. Players like Munich Re, Swiss Re and Reinsurance Group of America have liaison offices in India. National Indemnity , a member of the Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group, is selling reinsurance to general insurance companies in India.

The charity movement, which Buffett partners with Microsoft founder and friend Bill Gates , will take him to Bengaluru, New Delhi and Mumbai. Buffett will begin his India trip with a day-long stopover at a small company in Bommasandra, an industrial township on the outskirts of Bengaluru. That will present an opportunity to evaluate the performance of his only Indian investment, TaeguTec India , makers of carbide tools for automobiles. It is a unit of Iscar, an Israeli conglomerate owned by Berkshire Hathaway.

“We mooted the idea of a visit by Buffett to India way back in 2008 to showcase the technology-driven manufacturing model that we have built here,” said L Krishnan, managing director at TaeguTec India