The ₹21,000-crore LIC initial public offering (IPO), which is the biggest issue in the country will open to primary markets today. The issue will close on May 9. Through this IPO, the Centre will be liquidating its 3.5 per cent stake in the insurance behemoth.
The government will be selling the stake entirely through an offer for sale (OFS) of up to 22.13 crore shares for a 3.5 per cent stake.
10 per cent of the shares are reserved for LIC policyholders and 0.7 per cent for LIC employees. Also, 31.25 per cent is reserved for household (retail) investors.
Half of the issue is reserved for qualified institutional buyers, while 15 per cent is reserved for non-institutional investors.
The price band has been set at ₹902-949 and the lot size is 15 shares. Bids can be made for a minimum of 15 shares and in multiples of 15 shares thereafter.
A discount of ₹45 per equity share will be offered to Retail Individual and Eligible Employee Category and of ₹60 per share to Eligible PolicyHolder Category of investors.
Anchor investors
Ahead of the IPO, 59,296,853 shares in aggregate have been allocated to anchor investors at a price of ₹949 per share.
Marquee investors who got allotments in the anchor book include Government Pension Fund Global (sovereign wealth fund of Norway) (4 per cent of anchor investor portion); Government of Singapore (2.7 per cent); Monetary Authority of Singapore (0.68 per cent) and BNP Investments LLP (8 per cent).
Bulk of the response to the anchor book came from the 15 domestic mutual fund houses who, through 99 schemes, contributed ₹4,002 crore, getting allocation of each share at ₹949.
Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Limited, Axis Capital Limited, BofA Securities India Limited, Citigroup Global Markets India Private Limited, Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India) Private Limited, Goldman Sachs (India) Securities Private Limited, ICICI Securities Limited, JM Financial Limited, J.P. Morgan India Private Limited and SBI Capital Markets Limited are the Book Running Lead Managers for the issue.