NEW DELHI (Bloomberg) -- ICICI Bank Ltd., India's biggest by market value, plans to transfer investments worth 19.5 billion rupees ($440 million) in its asset management and insurance units to a proposed wholly owned unit called ICICI Holdings.

Kalpana Morparia, deputy managing director at ICICI Bank, will be the chief executive officer of the new unit, the bank said in an e-mailed statement on Sunday.

ICICI Bank plans to transfer its holdings of about 74 percent each in ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. and ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co., and 51 percent each in Prudential ICICI Asset Management Co. and Prudential ICICI Trust Ltd. to the new unit, the statement said.

“ICICI Holdings will raise capital for its insurance units,” Morparia told reporters in a conference. “Beyond a limit the bank can't raise capital for its non- banking and non-banking financial units” and that prompted the creation of the new unit.

Banks can't raise funds equal to more than 20 percent of their net worth for investment in non-banking and non-banking financial companies, Morparia said. ICICI Bank has already raised about 60 billion rupees and reached the limit, she said.

ICICI Bank expects to get approval from the Reserve Bank of India and the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority to start operations at the new unit by June, Morparia said.

ICICI Holdings may sell shares in an initial public offering to raise money for its proposed insurance units in the nine months ending in December, Morparia said. She didn't say how much money the company plans to raise.

ICICI Prudential Life is the country's biggest non-state life insurer, while ICICI Lombard General is the nation's biggest private general insurance company.

Prudential ICICI Asset manages the Prudential ICICI Mutual fund, which was India's largest mutual fund as of Feb. 28, with 433 billion rupees of assets, the statement said.