Department of Investment and Public Asset Management Secy Tuhin Kanta Pandey has said that the much-awaited LIC IPO is expected to hit the market by the fourth quarter of the current fiscal.
The government is seeking to raise as much as Rs 10 trillion ($133 billion) by selling up to a 10% stake. The sale of a 5% stake would make it India’s largest IPO, while a 10% dilution would make it the second-biggest of an insurer globally, Bloomberg reported.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in an interview with Bloomberg last month had said that “We are pushing to have it done. The problem is not that we don’t want it or we are pussyfooting on it now, it is more a question of doing the due process.” The Finance Minister had announced plans to sell shares in the insurer in February 2020, but the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic slowed the process.
The Indian government aims to privatise 5-6 state-owned companies in FY22. Financial bids for half a dozen CPSEs to be invited in Dec-Jan, DIPAM Secy said.
On BPCL, Pandey said that the process is in the due diligence stage. “While financial bidding of BEML, Shipping Corp, Pawan Hans, Central Electronic and Neelanchal Ispat can take place in December-January, their transaction is expected in the current fiscal.”
