The Life Insurance Corporation of India’s (LIC) $2.7-billion (Rs 210 billion) initial public offering (IPO)—the biggest in the history of the Indian markets—opened to subscriptions from retail and other investors on Wednesday.
Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government slashed the IPO size by about 60% due to ongoing volatility in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war. It now expects to raise just a third of its original target by selling a 3.5% stake in the company, giving it an initial value of $78.52 billion.
The price band of the IPO, which has been set at Rs 902-949 per share, will offer a discount of Rs 45 per share to employees and retail investors, and a discount of Rs 60 per share to LIC policyholders. The anchor investor portion of the IPO was fully subscribed on May 2 by investors including the Government of Singapore, Government Pension Fund Global (a sovereign wealth fund owned by the government of Norway), BNP Investments LLC, Monetary Authority of Singapore, Societe Generale, Invesco India, and Saint Capital Fund, per its stock exchange disclosure.
Over 71% of the anchor book portion came from domestic mutual funds, according to the filing. Domestic investors, including SBI Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential, SBI Life Insurance, Aditya Birla Sun Life, Axis Mutual Fund, HDFC Trustee, Nippon Life, Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance, L&T Mutual Fund, Tata Investment Corporation, UTI Mutual Fund, Sundaram Mutual Fund, IDFC MF, and Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, showed strong interest in the IPO.
According to media reports, the issue was subscribed 51% by 15:33 hours IST on Wednesday, the first day of bidding, and is expected to raise the largest funds in an IPO, if successful.
Multiple analysts that DealStreetAsia spoke to seemed very encouraged by the initial picture of the IPO and nudged long-term investors to invest in the company.
