Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has priced its initial public offering (IPO) at the top end of the indicated range, at ₹949, as per a Bloomberg report. Trading of LIC shares on the stock exchanges is due to begin on Tuesday, May 17, 2022.
The government raised over ₹20,500 crore ($2.7 billion) as the biggest share sale priced at the top of the indicated range following strong demand from local investors.
LIC’s mega public offering closed with nearly 3 times subscription at the end of the six-day bidding period, predominately lapped up by domestic retail and institutional buyers but foreign investor participation remained muted.
Retail investors were given a discount of ₹45 on the offer price, while policyholders received a ₹60. The anchor portion of LIC IPO was more than 70% subscribed by domestic institutions, including mutual funds, insurance companies.
The government has diluted 3.5% stake in the insurance behemoth through the Offer for Sale (OFS). The government reduced issue size to 3.5% from 5% decided earlier due to the prevailing choppy market conditions.
Even after the reduced size of about ₹20,557 crore, the share sale is the biggest ever in the country. LIC was formed by merging and nationalising 245 private life insurance companies on September 1, 1956, with an initial capital of ₹5 crore.
As of December 2021, LIC had a market share of 61.6% in terms of premiums or GWP, 61.4% in terms of new business premium, 71.8% in terms of the number of individual policies issued, and 88.8% in terms of the number of group policies issued.
