LIC IPO sees 'excellent' response from anchor investors

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LIC's initial public offering on Monday saw 'excellent' response from anchor investors, an official said. The government is selling 22,13,74,920 shares in Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) at a price band of Rs 902-949 a share, targeting to raise about Rs 21,000 crore.

The issue opened for anchor investor subscription on Monday and saw 'excellent' response, an official said, adding that the details of price bids would be known later in the day.

The LIC share sale would be the biggest ever amount raised through an initial public offering in the Indian stock market. The previous such high fund raising was seen in IPO of PayTM in 2021 at Rs 18,300 crore and Coal India in 2010 at Rs 15,200 crore.

Of the over 22.13 crore LIC shares on offer, over 9.88 crore shares are reserved for qualified institutional buyers and over 2.96 crore shares for non-institutional buyers. Up to 15,81,249 shares and 2,21,37,492 shares are reserved for employees and policyholders.

While retail investors and LIC employees will get a discount of Rs 45 per share, LIC policy holders bidding in IPO would get a discount of Rs 60 a share.

LIC share listing date

The issue would be open for subscription for institutional and retail buyers from May 4-9. LIC would start trading on the stock exchanges on May 17.

"Everyone should apply, but the prospects should be long-term rather than short-term. As all of them are receiving a good discount, their valuations are becoming more reasonable. Invest for the long term," Ravi Singhal, vice chairman, GCL Securities Limited, said.

LIC's embedded value, which is a measure of the consolidated shareholders value in an insurance company, was pegged at about Rs 5.4 lakh crore as of September 30, 2021, by international actuarial firm Milliman Advisors.

Based on investor feedback, the market value of government-owned LIC has been pegged at 1.1 times its embedded value or Rs 6 lakh crore.

With Agency Inputs