kolkata staterun allahabad bank has decided to hire a consultant to advise it on its proposed stake sale in the insurance joint venture universal sompo general insurance co allahabad bank holds 30 interest in the jv and plans to divest its share fully or part of it even as its overseas partner sompo japan nipponkoa insurance plans to raise its holding to up to 49 from 26 at present india has recently allowed foreign insurance companies to raise their investment up to 49 in indian insurance ventures from the earlier cap of 26 the decision to engage a consultant was taken by allahabad bank board friday the bank said in a bse listing the consultant would also redraft the shareholders agreement between the partners including indian overseas bank karnataka bank and dabur to make this in step with the amended indian insurance laws indian overseas bank hold 19 in the jv which has shareholders fund of rs 230 crore including premium at present karnataka bank hold 15 with dabur having 10 interest in it the finance ministry had earlier told staterun banks to look at divesting their noncore assets in order to meet increasing capital requirements under the basel iii capital framework