mumbai hdfc life birla sun life insurance and bharti axa life insurance are among the six best bidders hsbc has chosen to sell its 26 stake in the indian life insurance joint venture with two staterun banks said a person familiar with the development hsbc has shortlisted six said the executive of a life insurance company not wanting to be identified the fourth bidder is manulife the remaining two bidders are unknown hsbc and hdfc life declined to comment bharti and manulife did not respond to emails seeking comment there is no certainty that a deal will happen canara bank and oriental bank of commerce the joint venture partners could throw a wrench the sale of stake in the indian insurance venture is part of hsbc global chief executive stuart gullivers plan to exit insignificant businesses he has closed or sold 46 businesses since he took charge in 2011 to increase the profitability of the bank which was one of the earliest to get hit in the us subprime collapse he plans to cut 30000 jobs to save 25 billion to 35 billion in expenses if a transaction happens it may yield a sum of rs 1000 crore as the company may be valued at about rs 4000 crore said an industry official this will be much lower when compared with other deals which valued bigger companies higher the latest insurance deals in india have taken place at 335 times the embedded value the future income of the present value mitsui sumitomo valued max life at rs 10504 crore when it bought out new york lifes stake in the company when nippon life bought 26 stake in reliance life it valued the company at rs 11500 the venture has not been performing well its income from new policies sold was rs 611 crore a 1173 fall from a year earlier it is worse than the industrys decline of 632 the company launched in june 2008 had a total paidup capital of rs 925 crore it operates on the bancassurance model the joint venture sells products through 951 branches of the three banks the company has access to about 60million customers and a network of over 5500 bank branches of the two stateowned banks