Green Delta Insurance Company Limited is going to purchase 43 percent of shares of Sunlife Insurance Company Limited, which is now struggling to settle claims of clients.

The Sunlife's directors and sponsorsdecided to sell the 1.54 crore shares in a board meeting on Sunday, according to disclosures made by the two insurers on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) website yesterday.

The transaction will be carried out through the stock exchanges and be subject to necessary regulatory approvals, it added.

Each Sunlife share was traded at Tk 52.90 yesterday, according to the DSE data.

If this price is taken into consideration, the 1.54 crore shares will come with a price tag of Tk 81 crore.

The directors are those who hold a majority of shares while sponsors who had held shares since the founding of the company.

The Sunlife's sponsors are family member of Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque.

Its founder chairman, A Maleque, is the minister's father. At present, his sister, Prof Rubina Hamid, is the chairperson.

The minister's wife, Shabana Maleque, and son, Rahat Maleque, are also directors, according to the company's website.

The Sunlife's claim settlement ratio stood at 55.05 percent at the end of 2022, according to the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA).

That year, clients had made claims worth a total of Tk 101.6 crore, of which Tk 55.9 crore was settled by the insurer.

The claim settlement ratio was 75.4 percent in 2021 and 58.03 percent in 2020, the IDRA data showed.

This year, policyholders submitted the highest number of allegations against the company up until October.