London, July 14, 2008 (IANS)

British insurer and care group Bupa is setting up a joint venture in India with Max, a health business group. Under Indian law, Bupa gets only a 26 per cent share in the joint venture, called Max Bupa. The venture's total capital will be £12 million. This is a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a nascent market," said Ray King, who became chief executive of Bupa in May when he took over from Val Gooding.

Bupa operates in 200 countries, including insurance and care home businesses in Spain, Denmark, Thailand, the US, Australia and Hong Kong. Max India has interests in healthcare, clinical research, insurance, and the manufacture of speciality materials for the packaging industry. Last year it achieved revenue of £432 million and already has experience with foreign partners, having run a joint venture in health insurance with New York Life since 1999.

King tells Financial Times, London: "India has a population of 1.1bn, by 2025 it's going to have a middle class of about 600m. Some 70 per cent of the healthcare spend is private and 90 per cent of that spend is not insured, it's paid for out of pocket. The latent demand there is huge."