LIC IPO subscribed 1.79 times on Day 5

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Life Insurance Corporation's IPO, the country's biggest public offer, was subscribed 1.79 times on the penultimate day of the offer on Sunday. Against 16,20,78,067 shares on offer, 29,08,27,860 bids were received, according to the data posted on stock exchanges at 7 pm. However, the Qualified Institutional Buyer (QIB) category is yet to be fully subscribed. Bids were received for 0.67 per cent of the shares earmarked for the segment, showing a poor response.

With regard to non-institutional investors (NIIs), a total of 3,67,73,040 bids were received for 2,96,48,427 shares reserved for the category, reflecting a subscription of 1.24 times. Retail individual investors bid for 10.99 crore shares as against 6.9 crore shares on offer for the segment, translating into an over-subscription of 1.59 times. Of the total, the policyholders' portion was subscribed 5.04 times, while that for employees was subscribed 3.79 times.

LIC has fixed the price band at Rs 902-949 per equity share for the issue. The offer includes a reservation for eligible employees and policyholders. The retail investors and eligible employees will get a discount of Rs 45 per equity share, while policyholders will get a discount of Rs 60 per share. The government aims to generate about Rs 21,000 crore by diluting a 3.5 per cent stake in the insurance behemoth through the Offer for Sale (OFS) which closes on Monday.

LIC reduced its IPO size to 3.5 per cent from 5 per cent decided earlier due to the prevailing choppy market conditions. Even after the reduced size of about Rs 20,557 crore, LIC IPO is going to be the biggest initial public offering ever in the country. So far, the amount mobilised from the IPO of Paytm in 2021 was the largest ever at Rs 18,300 crore, followed by Coal India (2010) at nearly Rs 15,500 crore and Reliance Power (2008) at Rs 11,700 crore.

LIC was formed by merging and nationalising 245 private life insurance companies on September 1, 1956, with an initial capital of Rs 5 crore. Its product portfolio comprises 32 individual plans (16 participating and 16 non-participating) and seven individual optional rider benefits. The insurer's group product portfolio comprises 11 group products. As of December 2021, LIC had a market share of 61.6 per cent in terms of premiums or gross written premium, 61.4 per cent in terms of new business premium, 71.8 per cent in terms of the number of individual policies issued and 88.8 per cent in terms of the number of group policies issued. 

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